Prostate Patient

Thursday, March 15, 2007

An Update

Since recovering from my health challenges following an operation at age 52 to remove cancerous stuff (no I'm not medically knowledgeable) from my prostate, I haven't been keeping this web log up to date. This is because it was never really meant to deal with the health issues. My interest was in recording the service experience as a customer of the medical profession.

And I haven't had much involvement with them lately, certainly not on issues that I'm comfortable talking about.

I got the 6-month all clear. No need for follow up radio or chemotherapy which is just as well because I'm not sure that I'd have agreed to the treatment. My 9 month check up is at the end of March and I've no reason to think it won't be fine. I've taken advice for another prostate recovery patient - same age, same op' 12 months earlier - and gone on Silenium (Usana brand) as a natural assist.

The two issues that males of a certain age want to know about are the bladder and erections. As I said earlier I'd rather talk about customer service! Anyway I will say that the bladder is fine 97% of the time. I'd prefer 100% of the time but this seems to be as good as it will get for me, though I'm diligent with the exercises to improve it or at least make sure it doesn't get worse. As for erections, who'd have believed that you would inject yourself there!!! Not my idea of fun. I'm told they can still happen naturally within 2 years. One year and 3 months to go. I'm hoping.

# posted by Jurek Leon @ 6:39 am 0 comments

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Health Update

I've had a few emails from friends and clients that have had a look on this weblog to get an update on my progress.

I haven't put one on recently because if I did I'd be rewriting the September 15th posting, 'Slowly Slowly' almost word for word. I'm happy to say that there have been no setbacks but I continue to follow the 'Slowly, Slowly' path.

# posted by Jurek Leon @ 5:55 pm 0 comments

Why Some Doctors Get Sued And Others Don't

If you've read Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink, you'll have heard of this already. If not prepare to be amazed.

"Medical researcher Wendy Levinson recorded hundreds of conversations between doctors and their patients, to find out why some doctors get sued and others don't.

"The answer was three minutes. It turned out the surgeons who had never been sued spent three minutes longer with their patients than those who were sued (18.3 minutes, versus 15 minutes).

"More importantly, they were far more likely to make comments that involved the patient in what was happening, such as "First, I'll examine you, and then we'll talk the problem over". They listened actively and laughed more than the doctors who were sued. The quality of medical information they gave wasn't any better. It was the way they interacted that differed.

"It gets stranger: recordings of doctor-patient conversations were made and the words were removed via computer. All that was left was intonation and inflection - the rise and fall of the voices. Independent judges were asked to rate these doctors for warmth, hostility and dominance, knowing nothing about them but the sound of their voice - not even the words they spoke. They accurately predicted which doctors would be sued and which not."

Jurek's View:

As a patient I can understand that. When you are fragile, you need to feel that you are with someone who cares, someone who takes the time to listen to you, not just someone who is technically excellent. Fortunately, I picked the right type of surgeon.

Now that my health is improving, I'll put on my customer service hat and ask, "What's this got to do with you and your customers?"

Tune in to how you yourself and your team talk to customers and ask yourself, "Is there room for improvement?" Do you take the time to really listen? Is your whole purpose whenever you are with someone, customer, colleague, friend or family, to make them feel better about themselves as a result of being with you? It's a great objective. Give it a go.

I read the extract citing Malcolm Gladwell's best selling book Blink in the ECustomerServiceWorld newsletter. Refer http://www.ecsw.com/.

# posted by Jurek Leon @ 4:00 pm 0 comments

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

In Defense Of Receptionists

I had an email from a friend and client today which said in part "I notice you are having another go at medical receptionists." She was referring to a posting on my weblog on 15th September (see below) about 'A Tale Of Two Ultrasounds'.

Please don't think that. As I said in response to one of the comments at an earlier posting ('Mixed Reception' 5th August), I have found some medical receptionists to be wonderful.

For example, at my busy little doctor's surgery where they are likely to get people coughing and sneezing and feeling generally miserable, they are consistently superb. Full of warmth and care yet still efficient and effective.

Yet at many, while I'm sure they work hard, they lack warmth and empathy and fail to connect with the people who matter, their customers. Maybe, its because they have been led to believe that the people who matter most are their bosses, the specialists or the hospital administrators. And this may be part of the problem. If it is, the bosses are the ones who need to attend the training programs first.

Another cause may be that they understand their function but not their purpose. Theo Gilbert-Jamison, a senior executive at the Ritz-Carlton hotel group, put it well when he said of hotel receptions, "The front-desk's purpose is not to check people in. That's its function. The purpose is to welcome the customer."

So, what this tells us is that while the function of the receptionist may be to manage the appointments process, ensure all records are correct and the doctor/specialist gets the right information and so on, their purpose to help customers (patients) feel better about themselves. They are really health professionals too, looking after the emotional health of the patients they come in contact with.

Below is a link to an interesting article, 'The Teddy Bear Secret', that includes more of Theo Gilbert-Jamison's wisdom...and mine!
http://www.terrifictrading.com/The_Teddy_Bear_Secret.html

# posted by Jurek Leon @ 10:31 am 0 comments

Friday, September 15, 2006

Slowly, Slowly

A month ago I was planning all the things I'd start doing in September. I wasn't over-ambitious, it's just that I seemed to be making steady progress.

Now, I never planned to rush my return to work and other activities. Running my own business, it would be very tempting to do so. But one of my favourite books is 'In Praise Of Slowness' by Carl Honore, and I tend to follow that philosophy. Prior to my operation, I'd put a line through six months and told myself, as well as my colleagues and clients, that if I was back to work earlier than that would be a bonus. I wanted to give my body as much time as it needed to heal.

However, as I came to the end of my first three months recuperation, progress seemed to be good. Thankfully bladder control was heaps better, and I was going out for regular walks and building up on light exercise.

I made a couple of calls to work friends and colleagues to see how they were going. I was astonished at how each time I did this I would feel absolutely exhausted afterwards. I set myself a target of reading up on some work projects and writing an article. It didn't happen. Each time I started I got far too tired. And that's the way it's continued. September has definitely been the month of going slow.

So I'm certainly glad that I didn't put myself under any pressure with timelines for getting back to work. It is definitely a case of slowly, slowly.

# posted by Jurek Leon @ 1:26 pm 0 comments