Thursday 18 April 2019

Feedbacks and what do we learn from them: Differentiating "Truth" and "Opinions"

Feedback is just an opinion of someone on something or someone...

Truth and Facts are DIFFERENT FROM Opinions

Opinions are created by people and are Relative to their own Point of view.

Feedback is an opinion of a person relative to his point of view, It is not the truth and fact of the object of opinion.

But...Why only customers give feedback about service providers/services and vice versa is not a norm?

Always wondered about this....Google with search words " service providers feedback" ... It only gave results on customer feedback, how their feelings are important for our business and " our" feeling( service providers) did not appear to matter. We could reply to their feelings.
As a doctor felt that if customer is not pleased- I will flop - it did not seem to matter that the decision I made was in the best interest of the patients.
But then look at the list of 6 types of businesses :
http://www.wi-force.org/6-common-types-business-services-n…/ (in this list:doctors do not even make it to the professional services..)

Learning very late in life but then ...Capitalism and Humanism were not in my curriculum anywhere so far...
some answers- 
Medicine taught me compassion,ethical and humane qualities and I have grown up with the fear of God.
Humanism convinces us that 'we' are the ultimate source of meaning and that our free will is therefore the highest authority of all.
Because customer is always right - Nobody has the authority to tell the customers that they are wrong, and heaven forbid if we try to even attempt to persue them..
Customer knows what's good for them, atleast what makes them " feel" good and in control...
Some of above learning is from my recent read by Yuval Noah Harari..





something needs to be done. There should be terms and conditions to be accepted before writing a feedback. Terms and conditions should include that the feedback is genuine and the patients should write the fact not their judgement ( strict action will be taken for defaulters: example you will be banned from Google medical search for 3 months or something like that) Just a suggestion 😊
On a serious note - Just in a 10-15 minute consultation: our years of hardwork and dedication is judged and written for public. I have reached a stage ( finally) to stop caring. I am writing this as a form of catharsis because when I did care- no one gave me this insight in to feedbacks. Nowadays some websites have started verifying the feedbacks. I request the patients to write the fact/incident and not their judgement. Let's say a patient writes "When I told Dr Sheelu that according to Google "A" treatment is better for me, she concluded to prescribe "B" : this is an example of fact. Same patient can write a feedback ' She is full of herself/ does not listen to me'. Now how do the reader interpret if they only read the second feedback ( judgement). They don't know the incident, they read the judgement. I will argue that in my experience and after clinical examination, I decided B in patient's interest.( I make it a point to explain to them why I decided so).
To save my image/ practice/ livelihood, Do I have time to sit and reply to these comments? I personally reply to my Centers page and not to any Practo/ JD/ FB .
Infact look at Practo- they actually put words in the mouth- they have options to grade us on " friendliness, time we spent, and best option in their list 
' satisfaction' . " No place for " Did you get cured?".
What is health?: WHO says physical , mental and social well-being. We as specialist are mainly trained for physical health and sympathy to especially cancer and disability. Empathy comes for all, only if they can come out of their preconceived notions about the doctor.
Nowadays, everyone wants to see an ENT for cold / cough as first choice. They do not go to their family doctor. Infact where is the family doctor? we drove them out. Now we go to a super specialist who is super trained and diagnosis is reached quicker but feedback says doctor did not spent time! A family doctor would have touch based with their families and then told the diagnosis and given treatment. Infact I keep refunding consultations and redirect patients to physician almost on daily basis. But doing this makes me rude: 
"we waited and then she asked some questions and finally sent us to another doctor." ( Money returned but that " me" is hurt. One person told me that I wasted his time by doing so (sending him to right doctor).
I also want to make a comment about : giving a doctor's consultation 🌟 rating. We can be anywhere from 1 star ( thanks Google and Practo) you did not give a zero 🌟 option! Are we some mobile phone bought on Amazon to be graded like this? We doctors are also humans and to earn a decent living we need to see an average 30 patients per day ( some more), busy days 60-75. Is it humanly possible to befriend everyone ( Practo listening: remove friendliness)
I may be an authoritative doctor but I stick to my Medical oath "Do no harm".
To conclude: there are 2 sides of a coin, I am sure there are patients who want to reply to me, I am sure I had a bad day and was really not friendly! But also sure that I Do no harm and I still continue to read the feedbacks in case there is some authenticity and I can make myself better.


Trust real doctors sitting in front of you, not internet....

  On Doctors day 1st July 2022, we can only wish for a healthy life and relationship for both patients and doctor. The first practical class...