Courtesy in Caring: The Patient as Customer

Abstract

If you were paying $500 a night for a hotel room,. would you be happy if you were told you would be sharing it with a stranger? While such a question cannot be literally asked about a hospital experience, metaphorically it can be--and is--asked every time a patient enters a hospital. The idea of patient-as-consumer is not longer just another trendy concept but an integral part of the way many hospitals do business, and it's the hospital manager's responsibility to ensure the customer's satisfaction.

Telephonic Terrorism

“…Unfortunately, however, it is a small manifestation of a much bigger and more troublesome problemmedicine's almost total transformation into a fiercely competitive business in which doctors are lumped with other professionals as "healthcare providers" and patients are referred to variously as customers, consumers, clients, or recipients. [2][3][4] Re-establishing our historical image as doctors will be difficult and might no longer be possible. Nevertheless, we should strive diligently, relentlessly, and collectively to recapture the days when medicine was a highly respected calling and a proud and noble profession.…”