Peter Millett, MD, an orthopedic sports medicine physician from Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colo., shares three common mistakes sports medicine physicians should avoid making.
1. Failure to integrate physical therapy and rehabilitation. Dr. Millett says it is absolutely critical sports medicine physicians incorporate physical therapy and rehabilitation into their practices. This can by accomplished by bringing in those services and providing them directly to patients or by building relationships with outside physical therapists or rehabilitation facilities. Referring patients to these post-surgical services is critical to optimizing clinical outcomes as well as developing successful business relationships.
"I think this is an area that the sport medicine practices can improve upon, specifically because it helps enhance patient results," Dr. Millett says. "For example, I can perform the perfect surgery on a patient, but if I don't communicate well with the therapist what the patient's rehab should be, that may not result in as perfect of an outcome."
2. Failure to communicate with patients. Although sports medicine physicians should always strive for excellent patient outcomes, at the end of the day they should also strive to achieve high patient satisfaction, which leads to greater patient loyalty, an improved market presence and profitability. Knowing this, sports medicine practices should incorporate a culture centered around patient satisfaction by practicing open communication and great accountability and follow-through with patients' concerns. Dr. Millett says patient dissatisfaction or frustration can stem from a wide array of factors, from poor outcomes to not having phone calls answered or in a timely fashion.
"Oftentimes, those patients end up going to another physician because they get frustrated with not being taken care of immediately or directly," Dr. Millett says. "Some patients need extra care and attention. Medicine is not a perfect science, so sometimes surgery may not be able to provide a total cure. As long as they feel like the physician is engaged and doing everything he or she can do to fix the problem, the patient doesn't get discouraged."
3. Failure to connect with patients. Establishing a connection with patients takes patient satisfaction one level higher. This means sports medicine physicians should strive to emotionally connect with patients by conveying through body language that they themselves care about the patients' injuries and concerns.
"Make sure if you're sitting down with a patient, you make good eye contact and listen to their story. Even if you know what their diagnosis is, give the patient enough time to tell you their side of the story and recognize that they're scared when they're coming to see you and anxious because they don't know what the future holds. It's important to provide that reassurance," Dr. Millett says.