office gossip, medscape, meyeroff
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My office gossip feature is on Medscape's Business of Medicine site. It's a practice management story about how bad staff behaviors--including gossiping--can diminish practice reputation and finances.--Wendy MeyeroffTRANSCRIPT
7/16/13 2:21 PMOffice Gossip, Bad Behavior: How It Sabotages Your Practice
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Medscape Business of Medicine
Office Gossip, Bad Behavior: How It Sabotages Your PracticeWendy J. Meyeroff Disclosures
Jul 10, 2013
Introduction
Doctors work hard to provide the best clinical care, but if your office is rifewith gossip and bad front office behavior, the environment can undermine
your efforts to build a successful practice.
Even if the majority ofyour staff are polite,
considerate, andeffective, one
problematic staffmember can change the
tone of the practiceexperience for patients.
As in any workplace, avariety of toxic
verbiage can develop in
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7/16/13 2:21 PMOffice Gossip, Bad Behavior: How It Sabotages Your Practice
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doctors' offices: bullying, hurtful gossip, deliberate or unintended breachesof privacy. But consequences in healthcare can be much more severe.
Consider these examples:
• "In one physician's office, the front office staff was a revolving door. Lab people, receptions, billing people...the practicecouldn't retain its staffers," says Kristin Baird, RN, president of The Baird Group, a consulting group focusing on the patientexperience, in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. She discovered that the partners knew the cause of the problem: an office managerwho reigned through verbal abuse. "The staffers had reported their issues," Baird says, "and the doctors' response was, 'We
know, but she's a rock.'"
• As an extremely demanding patient is finally walking out the door, the NPsays to the receptionist, "Boy, I'm glad to see that pain-in-the-neck go." Unfortunately, she says it loudly enough that the
patient overhears it.
• A doctor looking over paperwork at the front desk exclaims, "Oh, I see Jon Smith has another positive STD test."
• A long-time receptionist regularly offers tidbits on coworkers, such as, "Have you heard that Susie and her husband havestarted marriage counseling?"
The Impact on Patient Relations
"When patients observe staff fighting, it diminishes their trust in the organization," says Baird.
As do unthinking remarks, like the NP maligning the exiting patient. Such interchanges can lead patients to wonder what thestaff is saying about them; it’s not a positive feeling for an office to convey.
"Staff rudeness does matter," says Jeff Brunken, president of Salt Lake City-based MGIS Companies, which providesmalpractice insurance. "We have data showing that it can make patients more prone to sue, even when they like their
physician. If we hear of a practice that is consistently noted for rude staff, it could impact premiums."
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Cite this article: Office Gossip, Bad Behavior: How It Sabotages Your Practice. Medscape. Jul 10, 2013.
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