Running behind in practice? Sometimes find patients sharing their stories with you can weigh you down? It looks like washing your hands can do a lot more than just get rid of germs.

Catch up if you’re fallen behind.

Ok so you’ve been a bit off and thrown some curve balls with the patients you’ve seen so far in the shift. You’re got people banking up in the waiting area, people are looking at their watches and your support staff are giving you daggers. Each person you see is wanting you to spend more time with them and it seems that each case is getting more and more complicated. The very best thing you can do is take a moment quietly walk down to the bathroom and wash your hands.

Breath. Take a moment. As you are washing your hands focus on washing off the “accumulated crap.”

Researchers Lee and Schwarz in 2010 found that it seems that hand washing may remove past concerns and gives a person the feeling of a clean slate. (Lee & Schwarz, 2010)  Another study found that hand washing ...

...their own name.

Have you ever noticed that if you hear someone calling your name you instantly look around to see who it is? It sounds obvious but your name is your identity.

When a new person comes into your practice it actually is YOU being assessed. 

It is said that “people don’t recall WHAT you told them, they remember how you made them FEEL.” Getting their name right is the first step towards making these people FEEL like they are in the right place and in the hands of the right person. 

Looking at their name on the new patient form and making sure you get it right as quickly as possible is critical to creating a connection with them. You have about 20 minutes to mispronounce their name as much as possible. This is around the same length of time as an initial new patient assessment. After that time should you continue to either mispronounce their name, or worse forget it and call them someone else’s, you are likely up the creek without a paddle in developing any lasting rel...