What patients wish doctors knew

The AMA’s?What Doctors Wish Patients Knew? series gives physicians a platform to share what they want patients to understand about today’s health care headlines, especially throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, for this installment, three AMA members took time to discuss what doctors wish patients knew about physician burnout and the small yet important steps they can do to help make things go a little more smoothly during this unprecedented time of stress.?

Here is how to piss off your patients.

Here is how to screw up the experience survey.

But,what do patients wish doctors knew? A new series of Market Insights questions, rolled out last year, focused on consumer selection factors for various types of care, including primary care providers. The number one thing people told us they want in a doctor—the factor that beats out reputation, personality, and even providing high quality care—is “a doctor that listens to me.” …But what do patients really mean by this?

Here are some more:

1. Wasting time filling out forms on a clipboard is annoying
2. I can't afford you
3. I can't use all those fancy technology tricks because I don't have access to broadband
4. Even if I could use the patient portal, it's confusing and it takes forever to get a response
5. Finding a specialist who will see me on relatively short notice is near impossible
6. I don't understand why I have to get my MRI from another place so you can see it
7. Your skimpliflation ideas are really annoying and just make more work for me
8. I have no idea how and when to get a second opinion or where to go to get one from someone who is more of an expert about my condition than the first doctor
9. I don't understand what you just told me and neither does my family
10. It makes me mad when you think your time is more valuable than mine
11. I can only see you on nights and weekends
12. Rationing care during COVID really scares me

Subscribe now to our What Patients Want Doctors to Know series when we will talk about "how do you expect me to understand all that artificial intelligence stuff".

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs