My son had a heart procedure a few weeks ago (he’s doing just fine now, thank you). Because my wife had worked as a CCU nurse, she researched Danny’s condition and potential practitioners. Together with our cardiologist, they chose Dr. Interian, the doctor who invented the procedure Danny needed.
As I told my son, having Dr. Interian perform this surgery would be like having Thomas Edison over to change our light bulbs. After all, who could be more qualified than the doctor who both invented the procedure and performed it thousands of times?
About an hour after they wheeled my son into the operating suite a middle-aged man in green surgical scrubs stood at the door of the waiting room and asked if I was “the father.” I nodded and he told me they were ready to start.
“Who are you?” I asked. He hadn’t bothered to introduce himself.
He looked at me like I was something he was annoyed to find stuck to the bottom of his shoe. “Dr. Interian. The surgeon. I met your wife. I’ll talk to you after the procedure.”
I went back to waiting, joined by Danny’s good friends Angie, Mari, Stephanie, Eric, and Jay, who had come to visit.
A few hours later, the surgeon came out, told me Danny was fine and that I could see him in 10minutes.
An hour after that I asked the receptionist when I could see my son, she said it would be another half an hour. When I mentioned I was told I couldsee him in 10 minutes over an hour ago, she laughed and asked, “Who told you that, the doctor? They have no idea.”
Finally I went to see Danny. In the recovery room I mentioned to the nurse that the doctor had told me he’d come talk to me but we hadn’t spoken. The nurse was aghast and went to fetch him.
“What do you mean we didn’t talk?” the irritated doctor said when he popped in a few minutes later. “I already told you everything was fine.”
“I want you to tell me more about the procedure,” I said. “What you found, what you did, what happens now.”
He looked incredulous. “I’ll discuss it with you when you have eight years of education,” he snapped.
I looked at him, turned to look at my son who was lying on the gurney with tubes coming out of his arm and machines beeping around his head, and decided the best thing to do was to take a slow, deep breath and walk away.
Now some of you might think that I’m being petty to complain about the doctor’s behavior. After all, what I wanted from the surgeon was an optimal outcome, and that’s exactly what I got. His lack of bedside manner and common courtesy was beside the point.
But it my mind it was bad customer service, bad manners and very bad form. And if I marketed health care for a living (oh wait a minute, I do) I would be really unhappy if one of my docs treated his patients the way I was treated.
The experience reminds me of my wife’s favorite joke:
Q: What’s the difference between God and a surgeon?
A: God doesn’t think he’s a surgeon.
Tags: Ablation, Alberto Interian, marketing health care, Thomas Edison
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Bruce, sounds like you and I had the opposite experience dealing with the medical establishment in the last week. My story is on my blog, http://www.whowilllead.blogspot.com. There is real data that shows a direct correlation between how we are dealt with by medical staff and malpractice lawsuits. (if I wasn’t too lazy, I would look it up) The theory is that if the medical team treats patients and their families like human beings, we will be more tolerant of their humanity.
The Broward Health team is very cognizant of this type of behaviour, on the part of physicians, and works with them to developp a rapport with the patient and their immediate family. Taking just a few moments to speak with them makes a huge difference. Dr. Chizner, of Broward Health, one of the top Heart Surgeons in Florida practices this every day.
You showed incredible restraint…I admire that about you.
I saw this doc over at UMSM a few times. I told him that he would drown in his hubris soon enough and found a new doc.
Bruce, no, you are most certainly not being petty. That is the most horrible doctor story I’ve heard in a long time, and I’ve had plenty of experience. My wife had a radical operation a few years ago, and like in your story, was treated by one of the few experts in the world for this particular type of procedure. This guy wrote the book on it! His assistants, more like an entourage, treated him like God. The only difference in this case was that he actually treated my wife and I as human beings. He took the time to explain, before and after the 14-hour operation, and continues to check up on her, answering any questions. There is simply no excuse for the treatment you received. I don’t care how rare the talent, or specialized the precedure. I hope your son is doing well.
PS. You should report the doctor to an authority.
Thank goodness for doctors and for your son’s recovery. Here’s a story about my friend’s son who had a similar experience and formed a foundation to advocate for better patient care for young adults. This young man had cancer as a freshman in college. His treatment was medically fabulous but very poor in the “customer service” area. His observation was that to him health professionals are good with the youngest and the oldest cancer victims but lack the skills to deal with the young adult group in between. Upon his discharge from the hospital, the young man wrote a grant to start a foundation as a support group for young adults with cancer. (Some lose their college scholarships because they can’t keep up. Others are shunned by friends and even in some cases, by family. The doctors are the least of their problems.) He launched the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults. He testified in Congress about patient care. He started a scholarship fund. At some point he came to the attention of Lance Armstrong. He is now the CEO of the Lance Armstrong Foundation (at the ripe old age of about 34!) Although he does incredible work (worldwide) for LiveStrong, he still has the Ulman Cancer Fund which has grown strong and which still focuses on empowering young cancer victims through advocating and fundraising for “customer care and support” both in and out of the hospital. Check it out at http://www.ulmanfund.org
Bruce – your story clearly illustrates how lawyers get rich. As you are aware, there is a real push to get doctors to be much more customer oriented. Why? To lower the rate of malpractice suites against doctors and hospitals. This doctor is in desparate need of Brain Darts! Best wishes for your son’s quick recovery and all the best to your family – Dana
Bruce,
glad all went well! Malcolm Gladwell in “What the Dog Saw” has some pretty astonishing stats on Dr’s that are sued for malpractice not because of their skill, but their lack of bedside manners!
gk
No court in the land would have convicted you if you had taken a poke at him. Though a little zen does help prevent lawsuits and time in the pokey.
While I greatly admire doctors and have had my butt saved by them more than once. I think many could use an old fashioned course at a charm school.
Recently I had a meeting with an MD and in passing asked why a year after some non-dental surgery my dentist insisted I take an antibiotic before having any dental work. The MDs reply was, ” they aren’t doctors.”
Bruce,
Glad to hear that Danny is doing well. I am sorry to hear that you had such a bad experience with the doc.
Lou
Hey Bruce—this is a teaching moment for the power of social media. You should go to Vitals.com (or one of the many other doctor-rating websites) and share your story there. I’m sure if I needed a doctor and read your review of him (added to the other negative review of him already posted), I might not choose him. At any rate, at least it would give me an idea of what kind of “personality” I’d be dealing with! And glad to hear your son is well again:-)
Bruce, I think you are wonderful, bright and I have great respect for you. However, this time I am in full, 100%, beyond the shadow-of-a-doubt disagreement with you. Shame on all of you. You got from this physician the singular most important thing he could have delivered – your son’s health and well being. The doctor studied and worked painstaking hours every day for many years to develop the technology and procedure that my very well have save your son from chronic suffering (or worse). While the physician would have been more “likable” had he spent the time to hold your hand, the most important hand(s) to hold during that procedure was that of your son and of the nurses that helped in the procedure. Great medicine and research is not developed by placating the masses, it is done only through intensive, nose-to-the-grind-stone study and hard work. If every physician spent more time studying procedure and doing research instead of mollycoddling those that don’t need care we would likely have few procedures gone awry.
Your clients come to Turkel because of your vast experience and expertise. With the amount of work that you have I can’t imagine a situation where you would sit down with every single client and explain why you chose PMS 286 and not PMS 300, why a line width of 1.5 and not 1.3. Why an oval in a logo and not a circle. It would drive you crazy, your productivity would plummet and you’d have disdain for your clients. You have years of training and expertise. That is why people come to you. They must trust you so you can get on with your work.
Let me suggest a more unpopular approach than berating your physician for bad manners. Write him a letter, thanking him for saving your son, buy him dinner, embrace him and promote him to your friends and colleagues as the man who saved your son’s life – not a guy who may lack some bedside charm. If you want bedside charm hire an actor. If you need a great interventional cardiologist, do what you did and hire the best physician in the field. He may very well have rubbed you the wrong in the short term, but think of the years he worked to save you and your family from what could have been another outcome. You owe this many something big and something good. I’d start with a HUGE “thank you”.
Bruce,I am so glad to hear that your son is doing well. I am horrified by the way you were treated by this doc. It is good to take his work seriously, but he should have taken his compassion just as seriously. After all, it was your Danny that he was operating on. You truly are the bigger man to show such grace and restraint and to stay focused on who was truly important – your son.
I must say that I have had a variety of experiences with the medical community. Most of the time, the docs are reasonablly sensitive to the patient…a few are very customer-oriented, part of the reason that my primary doc was selected. My prime horror story was when I was in my hospital bed after a procedure. I was using the bed “urinal.” The doc was making rounds and I asked the nurse if the doctor could wait a couple of minutes until I finished. Ten seconds later the doc was at my bed with 2-3 other med students. I was so shocked and anxious that I spilled some of the urine in my bed and over me. After I left the hospital, I never saw that doc again. Even in the world of cardiologists, there are choices and competition. I’m sure this insensitive cardiologist is not in the food stamp line, but he isn’t going to receive any more of my business.
All businesses know, or should know, that customer service is critical to their bottom-line…even elite doctors.
I am so glad to hear you son is okay and doing well. As for the surgeon — what a jerk!!! granted he has the skill to perform the surgery your son needed and the brain to have created it. But unfortunately, the jerk lost his own heart somewhere along the way. Heartless for a heart surgeon — how ironic. Add him to the lists of schmucks — Love to you and your wife.
Hi Bruce: So glad that all went well with Danny and
he will recover as fast as possible.As to the surgeon, he only walks on water because he knows
where the rocks are.
Bruce, sadly I have also had a number of experiences just like yours…and still survived as did other family members. There was a movie with William Hurt playing a doctor who becomes ill with throat cancer. He survives and, as a result of his nightmare of an experience at his own hospital, creates a program for all interns who have to “pretend” to have a variety of illnesses and then have to go through the horrors of being a patient. The great news is that Danny is fine and I guess that’s what we have to be satisfied with.
Nina
Bruce, my first reaction is, thank God your son is doing well and thank the doctor for doing a good job. Nevertheless, I am all too familiar with this sort of deplorable behavior my MDs. I hope at some point you had a chance to set him straight. He needs to be told that his behavior is totally unacceptable. I don’t care who he is someone needs to remind him about respect and human decency.
Like a Jamaican friend of mine always says, “God don’t like ugly”.
Bruce,
So happy that things worked out for Danny and hopefully he will get back to a normal life real soon. I do somewhat understand the pressure these doctors are under, but it is unacceptable.
I just experienced a similar sitituation here in Celebration, FL. Had pretty bad bicycle accident. Broke left arm, severe sprain in right wrist and other things. The specialist Dr. Rubin who set my left arm in a cast was not only rude, but like you did not like when I was asking questions. My 7 year old grandson was with me and said after we left was why was the doctor so unfriendly. I just told him he must be having a bad day. Needless to say I had to return to get my cast removed last week and he acted the same. I mentioned something to him afterwards about his demeanor and he just acted like he did not hear me. Needless to say, I will not be going back for any followups! I do not need his bad days in my life as there are choices.
Yes, Bruce, I have an inborn disdain for the medical profession in this country. The arrogance is what gets me.
Sorry to hear about your son, but I’m sure he’s well.
In my writings I always say, “in life/death emergencies doctors are angels, in chronic illness they kill you with their potions and arrogance.”
Since I completed the fourth edition of my latest book, The Road to Victory, I now COMPREHEND the stupidities all around.
Cheers!
Bruce, most of all, I’m so glad to hear Danny is doing well and that the procedure was a success. Kudos to you (and Gloria) for focusing your energy on Danny rather than this Doctor…
How do some get away with zero bedside manner??? There are more choices than ever in health care these days. It’s the health care establishments themselves that have the most to gain or lose by ensuring their doctors contribute to a positive overall image. Though, some outliers who find themselves in the front end of the bell curve still don’t feel the need for showing care or compassion. All I can say is, keep blogging!! Maybe this doctor, and others, will be sent a strong ethical message.
Thanks, Bruce, for sharing. Usually time for courtesy is not as important as favorable results. Glad your son had “the best!” Conni
Dear Bruce –
I am so glad to know that your son had a good surgical outome and is doing well.
Your story emphasizes the importance of the common touch — the sense of humanity that so many of us learned as first lessons from our parents — that we now have the opportunity to teach to our sons and daughters.
I am so glad to know that Danny will hear that lesson from his Dad.
Best regards. s/ Denis.
Bruce: Glad to know Danny is ok. No need to give the Doc a piece of your mind, you already gave him the best response (see all comments). All the best to you and your family. Marcos
Hi Bruce, So goocd to hear that your son’s surgery was a success and that he is on his way to a complete recovery. The doctor’s conduct is unaceptable under any circumstances. Patients love to sue doctors who treat them as you were treated. You never hear of a lawsuit being filed by a patient whose doctor treats them with honesty, compassion and most of all respect. All the best. Arnie
Dear Bruce, said briefly; You did not hire this Doctor for his bedside manner or even in regard to you being informed! This was strictly and only about Danny’s life and he got his job done!
If you understood the mindset and responsibility that lives inside him you would probably be unusually and deeply grateful, and knew his role has virtually nothing to do with YOU!
As an ex paramedic and OR technician I was aghast at the total lack of attention or caring for patients family and friends, until I personally particapated in life/death operations. Thank God
for their “lack of emotion” Analogy, try talking to Joe Dimaggio or Ted Williams about hitting and see their response. I am so happy for Danny and your family that Danny is well. I also assert, you would recommed that same doctor in a similiar situation. Your friend, respectfully, Martin.
Unfortunately, your recent experience is typical of our struggling health care industry. “We’re here to save your butt, not kiss it.” Treating “patients” not caring for “customers.” This is changing, though. Some leaders and leading companies are recognizing that we have compete for, care for and retain customers, like any other business. Those that do, will prosper.
In our business, we are teaching AIDET, a model for interaction with our customers. Developed by the Studer Group, AIDET is Acknowledge, Introduce, Duration, Explanation and Thank You. It works. Customer satisfaction is up, as are our financial results.
Thanks for sharing your family’s experience.
Mike Earley
I am so glad to hear that everything turned out well for your son.
I can’t say what it would be like in the good doctor’s shoes and your blog doesn’t mention Gloria’s take on his discourse with her. It’s the doctor’s good fortune that he excels at something that saves lives.
Looking at the scenario from a purely economical viewpoint, if there were thousands, maybe even only hundreds of doctors with equivalent skills, perhaps he would be humble enough to show respect to a person of your stature – you know, supply and demand. But when you are the only game in town, you can name your price – to hell with niceties. If you saw four of the stars from Stallone’s latest at a photo op at the NYSE, you know how male ego behaves.
For me, it’s unfortunate that human well-being has a profit motive attached. But as long as this is the case, I guess life-saving surgeons will be elevated to, if not God status, at least celebrity status.
Hi Bruce,
I work for UM and this story embarrasses me. I hope his expertise is as good as his manners are bad because then you got the best man for the job.
I personally choose Baptist Health doctors over my own employer’s. They are keen on customer service to the point that you feel like you’re on a vacation somewhere in a 5-star luxury hotel. Not that that’s why anyone should go to their facilities, but it’s nice to have the icing when the cake is already included.
Hope your son is doing well.
glad it went well…I am repeating one of your other responders re: the research on Dr’s lawsuits ….those that have a lousy attitude with patients/families are the ones that get sued
Glad to hear Danny’s doing well.
btw, If Thomas Edison was still around your light bulb would never need changing nor would we have weeks without power after storms. You se Edison would keep searching harder and deeper to solve problems. The people that inherit other people’s ideas only spend their time thinking about how to charge for them rather than improve them.
Keep an eye out for your bill. I’m sure that you will be charged for the consultation you never had.
It’s too bad that such a positive medical experience had to be somewhat tainted by such a poor customer service experience.
I’m reminded of the saying that bad behavior is a cry for help. Dr. Interian may be brilliant in his field but most expect a little consideration and kindness when your loved ones have medical challenges
Otherwise a doctor is little more than a mechanic. Actually… they do tell you how the repairs went.
Great post. Thanks!