Hi, welcome to today’s one-minute management tip - my name is Tina DelBuono. You know, we hear a lot today about being more “mindful” and then being present when we’re with others. We need to practice that when we encounter our patients every day in our medical practices. One thing that patients do complain a lot about is that they don’t feel that doctors and medical staff actually connect with them. How can we improve that? Well, there’s three things that we can do.
 
First of all, when you’re ready to encounter a patient, whether that be on the phone or walking into a treatment room, just stop for a second and reset, knowing that you’re going to go in and encounter this patient. Try and clear your mind as much as possible so that you can then, number two, listen and focus on what they are having to say. 
 
Often times we have so much going on in our mind because we’re seeing patient after patient, that our minds are busy and we can’t really focus and patients pick up on that. 
 
Then, number three, we need to try and block out distractions while we are actually with our patients. That might be hard to do, but if there are any things you can do in your practice to help do that, your patients are going to benefit - you’re going to benefit because you’re going to be able to focus better during that encounter with your patients.
 
So, take these three tips, one more time:
 
1) Stop and Reset
2) Listen and Focus
3) Block out Distractions
 
Talk about them together and find out how you, as a medical team, can improve on these three things. I can tell you, your patients will really appreciate it. Well, thanks for joining me today and I hope you have a great day.