Last Thursday while vacationing with my family in a small Colorado mountain town, I suffered a personal crisis when one of my highly visible dental crowns split in two and fell out.
I had Crystal, the receptionist at my dentist for the past 15 years, on the phone in minutes and explained to her the severity of the situation. After six minutes on hold, Crystal returned to tell me that Dr. B wasn’t going to be in on Friday, but that he could fit me in on Monday morning.
“How am I supposed to get through the next four days without this much-needed tooth, Crystal?”
She replied, “Dr. B says that you should get some super glue and apply it to both sides of the crown. Make sure your mouth is dry and it should stick.”
Knees bent, I followed the directions exactly as given, praying this prescribed remedy would carry me through the weekend. It didn’t make it through dinner.
Friday morning, after several failed attempts at super-gluing the crown in place, I drove back to Denver and called Dr. B’s office hoping to reach Crystal, or an on-duty hygienist, or at the very least – a recording of an emergency phone number.
No luck. The phone rang off the hook. Dr. B’s office was closed.
So I turned to Google and found 35 dental offices within a ten-mile radius of my home. I called 34 of them and each call was greeted by a different answering service or voice message, but each essentially telling callers that office hours were Monday thru Thursday.
“No one in Denver needs a dentist on Friday?” I thought. Dejected, I almost gave up.
You can imagine my elation when the 35th (and final) call was answered on the first ring by a friendly voice who listened to my dilemma and invited me to come down as soon as I could. She assured me I would be seen promptly by an experienced, highly skilled dentist who would make this unfortunate problem of mine go away.
Two and a half hours later, I was on my way out to dinner with my wife. I had undergone a painless root canal (seriously, I didn’t feel any discomfort at all), I had temporary crown in place that looked as good as the original, and I had an appointment to complete the work in two weeks when the permanent crown came back from the lab.
On Monday morning I called Crystal and requested that my dental records be transferred to my new dentist.
Like all core work ethic values, reliability is a 360 proposition. You can’t depend on others – customers or your employees – if you don’t model 100% reliability in every aspect of your business. While that doesn’t mean you have to keep 24/7 hours, it does mean that you need to provide solutions to those who have problems that may exceed your tee time.
The sad thing is – your experience is no longer an exception but typical with medical providers anymore. I’m not very old (35) but I remember that being an established patient used to mean something. An emergency call to your doctor wasn’t met with “go to the emergency room (to sit for hours and then be discharged with Robitussin for your obvious heart attack symptoms” or “call 911 (to have a big fat charge for the [subcontracted] ambulance to be added to the already big fat charges your health insurance [if any] will not cover”, but with “Meet me at my office or I’ll be right there, or if I can’t I know someone who can help”.
For all the jaw-exercise about positive customer experiences and those stupid (useless) surveys they give you, it seems that medicine is just another industry that has given in to profit over people. And considering the expense, what are you as the patient getting for the cost of one less day of office hours? I realize how stressful the field is (my mother was a nurse, had a sister who was a nurse, my niece is an MA, etc) and the need for time out and/or budget/personnel cuts forcing medical professionals to spread themselves thinner (private practice + hospital + remote practice rota) but how stressful is it for a patient who is truly suffering to be put into a situation that makes it worse?
I can imagine this Crystal person’s reaction to your leaving. “Okay”. No attempt to ascertain why you changed dentists after 15 years, not even a blip of concern. I’m not one of those people who expects a pretense of caring in my interactions with others, but in a “caring” profession in an industry that still is assessed by word-of-mouth…
Super glue? I am familiar with its original purpose, but…*shaking head*
Great comment, Tabitha. You’re right about how Crystal reacted to my asking that dental records be transferred. Not a blip of concern, but then again, she probably has no stake in the profitability of the practice, so what does she care?
Service care providers need a serious wake-up call.
Thank you for your thoughtful response.