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Apology, Explanation Can Diffuse Patient Anger.
DENVER - It's an unpleasant situation that busy physicians face all the time: striding into an examining room only to find a patient who is steamed over a prolonged office wait.
What's the best way to handle this situation? A new study suggests that the most effective response to the angry patient is a simple apology with a brief explanation, then quickly moving on to the medical interview.
What patients who are angry about a lengthy wait definitely don't seem to want-contrary to some pop psychology dogma-is an opportunity to openly discuss their anger and explore their feelings, Dr. Ronald S. McCord reported at the annual meeting of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine.
He conducted an empiric study aimed at providing data to guide physicians in dealing with this situation. He asked 130 patients at a family medicine clinic to view a videotape depicting a patient whose body language and words indicated that she was angry at being kept waiting in the office for 75 minutes. The study subjects then viewed a series of videotapes of various types of physician replies, rating them on a 7-point scale as to how satisfying and important they found them.
The responses were delivered by a female physician speaking in a deliberately neutral tone of voice. These included:
* An apology with implied ownership. "I apologize for your long wait."
* An apology without implied ownership. "I'm sorry you've ...
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