ABSTRACT
When patients arrive at a hospital or a physician's office, they are there for help. Whether they are merely seeking information about a new insurance plan or checking in for gallbladder surgery, they have come for one reason: to get assistance with a problem. The quickest way to create dissatisfied patients is to treat them poorly during this initial contact, but unfortunately it is done all too often. Instead of showing an interest in patients’ needs, medical facilities usually insist that patients deal first with the bureaucratic demands of the organization—asking them, for example, to fill out forms, or to first check in at the desk that handles insurance, to make sure the bill will be paid, or embarrassing them by indicating they are too early or too late for their appointment.
