What makes you a good doctor? Hear from your patients

Discovering what makes you a good doctor is no easy task. However, there is a person in every medical discipline who is well qualified and perfectly placed to tell doctors what makes them good, excellent or outstanding. That person is the patient.

Common qualities patients expect from good doctors

Visiting a doctor is often an anxious time. When patients book an appointment with you, what are they looking for when they walk through your door? We have compiled a list of the the most frequently mentioned qualities that patients say that they want from their doctors:

• A partnership – patients now play a more active role in their care and want to work with doctors who involve them in decision-making. Patients want to be seen as individuals with unique and particular preferences about how they want to be treated.
• Communication – patients  want doctors who are able to communicate clearly and thoroughly, without complicated medical jargon. They also want to be provided with honest and truthful information in order to gain a good understanding of their health. 
• An active listener – patients want to feel that they are being heard and are being taken seriously.  They want a doctor who listens and who respects their opinions, so that they can work together to create the most effective care plan. 
• Quality time – while a doctor’s time is valuable, patients want doctors’ appointments that aren’t rushed. They want appointments that are thorough, where they have time to ask questions and get the information that they need.
• Trust – patients need to be able to have complete confidence in you. They want the reassurance that you have the skills and experience necessary to provide the highest standard of care. 
• Empathy – Patients want you to be able understand their situation, take into account how they think and feel and see things from their perspective. They also want you to be able to communicate this understanding to them.

These common qualities of a good doctor show that patients not only expect you to have the right medical knowledge, skills and experience. They also want compassion, care and respect. There is also increasing importance being placed on collaboration between doctors and patients, with patients now becoming participants in the decision-making surrounding their care. 

The importance of active collaboration with patients

Healthcare around the world now focuses on patient-centred care, where active collaboration is encouraged. When it comes to being a good doctor, it is important for patients to be treated as partners. They should be active participants in their individual care as well as in the healthcare service as a whole. 

In an influential 2012 article, Dr James Rickert stated, “patients know best how well their health providers are meeting their needs”. But in England, only 51% of NHS staff use patient feedback to listen to how patients feel about their services and teams. And research in Germany suggests the capturing of patient feedback is even lower. Technical barriers and cultural differences were cited as reasons why Germany lagged, but patient feedback collection was shown to be inadequate around the globe. 

This poses the question, how do you know that you’re a good doctor? Of course, constant evaluations, metrics and peer-to-peer reviews offer insights, but comprehensive patient feedback is also incredibly important.

Learning and growing from patient feedback

What is the most effective way to collect patient feedback? At Doctify, we would always recommend using a digital feedback collection process. This reduces the admin that can be involved in review collection. It also captures your review data digitally, meaning that it doesn’t need to be typed up.

The best ways to listen and learn from patient feedback

Consistently collect up-to-date feedback

Hear from patients regularly, so that you can have a good understanding of how patients view you right at that moment in time, not last year. 

Request feedback from every patient that you see

Collect feedback from as many of your patients as possible. That way, you will get a complete picture of how patients view you as a doctor. 

Take the time to properly analyse your patient feedback 

Book in time to drill down into your patient feedback so that you can identify what is going well and any areas of improvement.

Collecting reviews for the sake of improving services and maintaining your position as a good doctor is crucial. It gives the opportunity to proactively listen and learn from your patients so that you can continue to provide them with the best experiences while in your care.  

Learn more about Doctify

Founded in 2015, the Doctify healthcare review platform enables you to easily collect reviews from your patients. The verified reviews that you gather are published onto your Doctify profile and can be used across your websites and social media channels. Through the Doctify Analytics Suite, we transform your patient feedback into patient insights to help you better understand how people perceive the care that you provide.