The clock watchers

It can be annoying when you have an appointment with a dentist and s/he is not there at the appointed time or you find yourself tossed to a locum dentist that you have never met. Emergencies happen in dentistry but a breakdown in communication between the office and the patient is inexcusable.

A friend was to be discharged from a top tier hospital, on Tuesday this week. His doctor promised to release him at 10 a.m. The busy doctor only showed up at 3pm pleading a failure to find parking in the parking lot and then having to rush off to another hospital to perform a procedure. Time is of the essence.

The customer is always right so the onus is on the dental or medical practice to manage time and irate patients who have been delayed. Angry patients need to be placated. Time is of the essence.

Delays in telling relatives of a patient in ICU that the battle to save the life of a comatose patient has been lost is equally frustrating for loved ones. So fill your ICU's and dental clinics with state of the art equipment but when things go south clinically and you are staring at a terminal condition after your best efforts be quick to inform all concerned. Time is of the essence.

Patients bear a large responsibility for treatment outcomes. If they present late in the course of a disease whose fault is that? A Stage 4 tumor is a losing battle. How did it not get attended to earlier? Time is of the essence.

Patients, healthcare workers including dentists, families and communities are all part of a health care system. Let us respect the clock because time is of the essence