04/26/2017    

PRACTICE MANAGEMENT TIP OF THE DAY

The United Airlines Debacle: 4 Lessons for Doctors - Part 3

 

Here are a few morals of the story for all of you out there who wonder if this could ever happen to you:

 

3. If people hate a policy already, an incident surrounding that policy is potentially explosive. There is not a person in the world that likes when airlines overbook planes. So of course, when something like this happens because of overbooking, it's only going to enliven people even more. If they threw Dr. Dao off the plane because of something he did, there is a much smaller chance this story goes viral like it did.

 

Of course, overbooking isn't limited to the airline industry. Some physician offices overbook because sometimes patients will miss an appointment. If you overbook, consider dropping the policy. Overbooking leads to crowded waiting rooms and pissed off patients. It could also lead to a damaging incident that goes viral and turns you into the bad guy. And consider this advice for any unpopular policy you have, see how important it really is and if it's worth a public relations nightmare.

 

Source: Gabriel Perna, Physicians Practice [4/11/17]