Courtesy in healthcare

Healthcare, like any other service oriented business, is driven by quality. There are several measures of quality, some easier to quantify than others. Courtesy must be ranked high among other indicators of quality of service.

Your healthcare providers must treat you with utmost courtesy. You deserve to be treated with respect and confidentiality. After all, you have gone to great lengths to select your healthcare provider, among hundreds of others.

The least you can expect is humane treatment.You should be welcomed to the service points with smiles, and offered reasonable comfort if you need to wait.If waiting longer than a few minutes, you should expect an explanation, and may be an offer of some tea or coffee as you wait your turn. Even water will do if you prefer that.

If courtesy falls short, you have the right to demand that this gets addressed. A simple word with the receptionist or the nurses usually passes the message. Mention it to your consultants as well for good measure. You can always put in formal feedback through the healthcare service management if you get cold shoulders from the frontline staff. The days when healthcare workers treated patients with contempt are long gone, and buried in the annals of shame.

You must treat your healthcare providers with courtesy as well. It is not unusual to come across individuals who don’t think very highly of the lower cadre of healthcare staff. They are all working together as a team to provide optimal service for you. You may be stressed out by your illness and be on the lookout for a punching bag. Please resist taking it out on your care providers, they too have their own stresses and could do with some cheering up as they cater for your healthcare needs. Common courtesy is a two way process, treat others as you’d expect to be treated.

If things come to a head as far as courtesy is concerned, there is always a way out. Why continue to patronize a service where you are not treated well? Give your feedback, plain and simple, and take your business elsewhere. You’ll find alternate courteous healthcare providers next door, and the quality of service may be even better in other respects as well. Get your subsequent care where courtesy is the norm, and broadcast the word to others. The days of the discourteous are numbered.

In healthcare services, courteous words like please and thank you should be heard more often. Expect pleasant gestures when being ushered in, and plenty of thank yous for showing up. Be quick to respond in kind as well if happy with the service. This is especially so in this festive season.Those working odd shifts to keep essential services running deserve a degree of appreciation. Enrich someone’s day by saying please, and thank you.