Patients like to be well informed. In today’s day and age, the typical patient
has some degree of knowledge from prior research online. Obviously, much of what they learn might be
misleading or patently wrong, depending on the source they’ve searched, but all-in-all
many patients have some correct general idea of their problem before they make
their first appointment with you. What
they often lack is an understanding of the basic medical mechanics that causes
their ailment, and usually explaining this in layman’s terms goes a long way especially
when it comes to treatment and outcomes.
This is particularly true when discussing surgery. In many cases surgery requires more than just
cutting something out. Surgery also serves
to enhance function, allowing the body to do more effectively what it’s designed
to do, to correct an abnormal process and make it normal. Case in point: placing tympanostomy tubes in
the ear. Explaining how this surgery
helps can be difficult (see the post Ear Tubes and Otitis Media as an example) without some visual aid other than
the doc pointing to your ear.
Drawings and diagrams go a long way to effectively
communicate the rationale for treatment, including surgery. This also improves the post-operative period,
where recovery often is better than expected since the experience is already
anticipated and made less unpredictable.
We get fewer postop phone calls when patients are better informed.
In my office—as there are in many other doctors’ offices—are
posters hanging on the wall depicting illustrations of various body parts,
organs, from a variety of perspectives.
Many of these were created by pharmaceutical and medical device
companies with their name and logo displayed, many times in not so subtle
ways. Yes, this is blatant advertising,
but many of these posters are quite good, and I’ve personally never felt
compelled to use a particular vendor’s product just because of the educational display. In fact, I don’t recall what vendor is behind
each of the various posters and educational items despite using them over many years.
As with all things in life, aging takes its toll, posters
being no exception. By happenstance one
day, I noticed some of those posters curling and fraying at the edges, and the
once lustrous surfaces were fading.
Seeing these day-in and day-out, my staff nor I realized the changes. Nor had a single patient brought this to our attention. Yet that day I realized these appeared a bit
shabby and unprofessional, and wondered whether the patient sitting in the exam
room might get the impression of—although entirely unintended-- uncleanliness
or subpar performance elsewhere.
So I decided to take those posters down. But first I had to find something to put in
their place, since the empty wall in their absence would look so…empty. Nature abhors a vacuum, so it is said. Then the idea of creating my own posters
struck my fancy. As you may have seen
from my previous posts, I enjoy artsy stuff.
So I created posters for subjects I tend to discuss frequently with
patients.
The photo at the beginning is not so clear due to reflection
from the glass (I forgot to shoot a photo prior to framing) but the drawings are also found in prior posts in this blog site. Framing these will increase longevity but
also improves the aesthetics. I believe an
office should be visually appealing and relaxing, which in turn decreases
(hopefully) patient anxiety. We also
apply this philosophy by the attitude and manner in which my staff engages with
our patients and amongst themselves—in a more informal, friendly and often
humorous fashion. We have other non-medical
related art work hanging in various places in the office, by my hand and the
hand of others. Patients often bring
this up, leading to chats about things completely removed from medicine. The purpose of all of this is to lower the
seriousness of the environment and better humanize the experience.
©Randall S. Fong, M.D.
www.randallfong.com
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