By Author Umasree Raghunath

1. PATIENTS'
EXPECTATIONS
FROM DOCTORS
Umasree Raghunath

2. ACTIVE LISTENING
• Listen to the patients
• Respect their opinions
• Follow-up questions
• Right to participate in healthcare
• Encourage them to be brave and active
patients
• Have conversations, do not push lectures
• Do not rush through your appointments

3. TRANSPARENCY
• Awareness of truth of the illness and impact
• Medical errors are not hidden
• Doctors to avoid human errors and inform patients
on the fixing of such errors, if any
• Educate the patients on success rate and risks in
procedures
• Explain the illness, its symptoms, tests, solutions
and above all treatment plans, cost, care etc.

4. TRUST
• Make patients comfortable
• Discuss sensitive topics openly, inform
assumptions and myths
• Develop patient-doctor cordial relationship to
openly share issues
• Trustworthiness to talk about other factors that
affect their health

5. CARE AND CONNECTION
• Patients identify that more care is not best care
• Awareness on ulterior motives are evident today
• Costs of medical professionals is informed
• Face to Face interaction with the doctors
• Patient want doctors to listen to them and medical
history
• Connect on both emotional and spiritual level

6. RESPECT
• Address human needs like water, blankets,
mosquito coils etc that impact their emotional
wellness
• Treat with respect, compassion and dignity
• Understand patients' expectations clearly
• Never make them feel disrespected or ignored by
washing away their feelings and not giving space
to express their anguish

7. EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
• Illness can be suffocating to many
• Diagnosis and procedures can be complicated
• Patients feel vulnerable and helpless
• Make them understand the problem in hand
• Explain things in way they understand and don’t
use medical jargons
• Do not get upset if there are many queries or
repeated instructions that need to be given

8. TIME
• Some patients can demand/expect more time
• Pay attention to what patients say
• Learn to value their time too
• Let them ask all questions they want to
• Make them understand appointments and stick to
them or inform changes in advance

9. EMPATHY
• Enquire on daily schedules and eating habits
• Interact to create a sense of connections
• Show patients that you care
• Develop inter-personal relationship with patients
• Make them comfortable to express their personal
histories, daily routines and lifestyles
• Discuss side effects of prescribed medication
• Educate the potential risks and benefits

10. ACCESS
• Be available to patients, even during lunch hours or
after work hours if needed and urgent
• Get test results on time, discuss findings and solutions
• Maintain electronic health records to refer back
• Simplify access related issues and communication
channels
• Always provide access to their healthcare information

11. CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS
• Do not rush instructions at an unintelligence pace
• Be accurate and clear
• Provide prescriptions and instructions printed for ease
• Explain and simplify medical and technical terminology

12. COLLABORATION
• Patients understand their life and body better than you
• Get consent while ordering tests or procedures
• Explain the financial burden and insurances coverage
• Elaborate on the purpose and need / implications of a
test or treatment
• Offer alternatives if the affordability is question and do
not add to the financial woes of the patients
• Maintain medical ethics of the profession at all time