Marketing Tips for Doctors

In this episode, Barbara discusses: 

 Key Takeaways: 

Physician freedom starts with identifying one unnecessary burden in the practice and making a practical change that restores time for meaningful care and life outside work. 

 Connect with Barbara Hales: 

Chapter 1: Why Doctors Are Losing the Joy of Practicing Medicine 

When did medicine stop feeling like practicing medicine? Do you remember why you became a doctor in the first place? Was it the chance to make a difference, the intellectual challenge, the satisfaction of helping someone frightened, sick, or in pain, or the extraordinary moment when you realized your knowledge could change someone’s life? Now let me ask you something else: When was the last time you felt that way? When was the last time you finished a day at your practice feeling energized instead of exhausted? When was the last time you went home thinking about a patient you’d helped rather than the charts you hadn’t finished? If you have to think about that answer, this episode is for you. Welcome to Marketing Tips for Doctors. I’m Dr. Barbara Hales, The Medical Strategist. Today, we’re beginning a brand-new series called the Practice Freedom Series. Over the next six episodes, we’ll talk about something that doesn’t get nearly enough attention: not how to squeeze more patients into your schedule, work longer hours, or become more efficient at things you shouldn’t have to do in the first place. We’re going to talk about how to get your practice and your life back, because somewhere along the way, many physicians stopped practicing the medicine they loved and started managing a practice and business they never intended to run. And that’s where our first story begins. 

Chapter 2: Dr. Susan Miller – Losing the Joy of Patient Care 

Imagine a physician named Dr. Susan Miller. She’s 48, an internist with a successful private practice. Her appointment book is full, her patients love her, and she’s respected in her community. From the outside, she appears to have achieved everything she worked for. But every Sunday evening around 6 o’clock, Susan begins to feel anxious as she thinks about Monday morning: the messages waiting in her electronic health record, prescription refill requests, prior authorizations, overloaded schedules, and calls from patients upset about insurance denials. Susan used to love Mondays. She loved seeing patients, solving diagnostic puzzles, and watching them improve because of the treatments she recommended. But now she feels like she’s running a factory, with patient encounters one after another, lasting 15 minutes, 10 minutes, or sometimes even less. One Sunday evening, her husband asks her a simple question: “Are you happy?” Susan doesn’t know how to answer because she still loves being a doctor; she just doesn’t love what being a doctor has become. Does that sound familiar? Here’s what I want you to understand: Susan’s problem isn’t that she chose the wrong profession or suddenly became less compassionate. Her problem is that her practice structure has gradually pushed the most meaningful part of medicine into the smallest portion of her day. Think about that. The reason she became a physician is now competing for time with the administrative machinery surrounding every patient visit, and that’s not just frustrating; it’s heartbreaking. But Susan’s story reveals something important: sometimes the first step toward reclaiming your professional satisfaction isn’t changing your career; it’s changing the way your practice operates. 

Chapter 3: Dr. James Carter – The Burden of the Second Shift 

Now let’s meet Dr. James Carter, a 55-year-old family physician who has been in private practice for more than 20 years. He’s built a wonderful reputation, earned his patients’ trust, and even cares for families across three generations. But his patients don’t see that every evening after his last appointment, James begins his second shift: finishing notes, reviewing lab results, responding to portal messages, completing forms, and handling tasks that didn’t fit into his regular workday. By the time he gets home, it’s often 8 or 9 o’clock. His wife has already eaten dinner, his grandchildren no longer expect him at their school events, and his golf clubs are gathering dust in the garage. One evening, while sitting at his computer, his wife calls and asks, “Are you coming home?” He looks at the clock, sees it’s 8:45, and replies, “Just another 15 minutes.” Suddenly, he realizes he’s been saying those same words for 20 years. The interesting part is that James doesn’t necessarily need fewer patients; he needs fewer unnecessary tasks and better systems that work for him instead of creating more work. This could mean using an AI scribe to reduce documentation time, automating routine appointment reminders, delegating tasks that don’t require a medical degree, or examining why so many administrative responsibilities have landed on his desk. The question I’d ask James is: If you stopped doing everything that doesn’t require a physician, how much of your day would you get back? An hour, two hours, or enough time to have dinner with your family and enjoy a life outside your practice? We talk about physician burnout as though it’s a mysterious condition, but sometimes the explanation is painfully simple: you’re doing too much of the wrong work, and you’ve been doing it for so long that you’ve forgotten there’s another way. 

Chapter 4: Dr. Elena Rodriguez – Finding a Better Practice Model 

Our third physician is Dr. Elena Rodriguez, a 61-year-old specialist who owns a small, thriving practice. She’s worked hard for decades, investing in her office, equipment, and staff while building a loyal patient population. However, her expenses keep rising, including staff salaries, rent, technology, malpractice coverage, and billing costs, while reimbursement for many of her services remains almost unchanged. To keep up, Elena sees more patients, adds appointment slots, shortens visits, works through lunch, and even adds another half day to her schedule. Although she’s generating more revenue, she’s not necessarily keeping more money or enjoying her work. One afternoon, a colleague mentions transitioning part of her practice to a hybrid concierge model. Elena becomes interested but immediately worries her patients won’t pay, she’ll lose them, or it won’t work. Concerned about patients who cannot afford it, she decides to do nothing. Another year passes, her overhead increases, and she works even harder. But here’s what I would tell Elena: she doesn’t have to destroy the practice she’s built or abandon insurance to change the way it operates. She doesn’t need to convert every patient to concierge medicine or make dramatic changes overnight. There are different models, membership programs, hybrid concierge arrangements, telehealth services where clinically appropriate, and other ways to restructure a practice so revenue doesn’t depend entirely on squeezing more visits into the day. Of course, every change must be carefully evaluated for patient access, financial viability, and applicable regulations. The important point is that Elena has options. The real danger isn’t exploring a different practice model; it’s assuming that the way you’ve always practiced is the only way you can practice. Sometimes the most expensive words in medicine are, “But we’ve always done it this way.” 

Chapter 5: What Three Physicians Have in Common 

Now let’s look at Susan, James, and Elena. Three different physicians with three different problems, but one common thread: each has allowed the demands of the practice to overshadow its purpose. Susan has lost the joy of seeing patients, James has lost control of his time, and Elena has lost confidence in her ability to change her financial future. But none of them has lost the ability to practice good medicine, stopped caring about patients, or necessarily needs to retire, sell the practice, or abandon the profession. What they need is a different way of thinking about their business, and that begins with a question most physicians rarely ask themselves: Is my practice supporting the life I want, or am I sacrificing my life to support my practice? That’s a difficult question because physicians are trained to put everyone else first. We’re trained to push through exhaustion, stay until the work is finished, and make sacrifices. While these qualities can make us excellent doctors, they can also make us terrible guardians of our own time and well-being. We become so accustomed to carrying the burden that we stop questioning whether it’s necessary. 

Chapter 6: The Practice Freedom Test – Three Questions to Ask Yourself 

So, I’d like you to try something this week, not next month or when things slow down, because we both know they probably won’t. This is the practice freedom test. Ask yourself three questions: First, what part of my workday do I actually enjoy? Is it diagnosing complicated conditions, helping patients understand their options, performing procedures, teaching, or building relationships? Write it down. Second, what part of my workday drains me the most? Is it documentation, insurance requirements, staff management, billing problems, or constant interruptions? Be specific. Third, if I could change just one thing about my practice over the next 90 days, what would make the biggest difference in my life? Not necessarily the biggest difference in revenue, but in your personal life. Maybe it’s getting home by 6 o’clock, taking Fridays off, having longer appointments with fewer patients, or finally taking a vacation without checking office messages every morning. Whatever it is, write it down, because I believe this strongly: you can’t build a practice that gives you freedom until you define what freedom means to you. 

Chapter 7: Taking the First Step Toward Practice Freedom 

15:55 Now, I don’t want you to leave this episode thinking that everything needs to change tomorrow. It doesn’t. Trying to change everything at once can lead to frustration, so start small. Identify one unnecessary task, one inefficient process, or one responsibility that could be delegated, and begin there. Practice freedom isn’t about working less; it’s about making your work more meaningful, sustainable, and rewarding. Remember, you became a doctor to practice medicine, not to spend your life dealing with insurance companies, paperwork, and missed family time. If today’s episode resonated with you, I invite you to take a closer look at how your practice operates. Through The Medical Strategist, I help physicians identify the systems, financial pressures, and practice structures that may be preventing them from achieving the professional lives they originally envisioned. If you’re ready to explore a more profitable, sustainable, and rewarding practice, schedule a complimentary discovery call. We’ll discuss where you are, where you want to be, and what’s possible. There’s no obligation, just a conversation about your future. In our next episode of the Practice Freedom Series, we’ll tackle one of the biggest obstacles to professional independence: the insurance trap doctors ignore. We’ll explore how dependence on insurance reimbursement affects patient volume, consultation time, and overall income, and why working harder doesn’t always mean earning more. Don’t forget to subscribe to Marketing Tips for Doctors and turn on your notifications for weekly strategies to help physicians attract better patients, build stronger practices, and enjoy medicine again. I’m Dr. Barbara Hales, The Medical Strategist. Remember, you worked hard to become a physician, and you deserve a practice that works just as hard as you do. So, till next time. 

In this episode, Barbara discusses: 

Key Takeaways: 

An apology can stop the immediate damage, but you rebuild trust by consistently following through on promises and showing the patient that something has changed. 

Connect with Barbara Hales: 

TRANSCRIPTION (251) 

Introduction: How to Win Back a Patient’s Trust After It’s Already Been Damaged 

Dr. Barbara Hales 0:00 

Have you ever had a patient say, “Doctor, I just don’t trust this office anymore”? Maybe nobody returned their call. Maybe a member of your staff treated them rudely. Maybe they waited an hour, and nobody bothered to explain why, or maybe you made a mistake. You listened, you acknowledged what happened, you apologized, and the patient said, “Okay, so everything’s fine now, right?” Not necessarily, because an apology can stop the damage, but it doesn’t automatically restore trust, and that’s what I want to talk about today. How do you win a patient’s trust back after it’s already been damaged? 

Hi, I’m Dr. Barbara Hales, host of Marketing Tips for Doctors, and this is the final episode in our series about one of the most valuable and most fragile assets in your medical practice: trust. 

The Importance of Rebuilding Patient Trust 

Dr. Barbara Hales 1:30 

We’ve talked about what happens when things go wrong. We’ve talked about angry patients. We’ve talked about what doctors should and shouldn’t say. We’ve talked about what happens when your staff escalates a difficult situation, and we’ve talked about something I believe every physician should think about: building trust before trouble ever happens. 

But there’s one more piece. What happens when trouble has already occurred, and the patient no longer trusts you? Can you get that trust back? I believe you often can, but here’s the important part: trust isn’t rebuilt by the apology. It’s rebuilt by what happens next. 

Think about trust as a bank account. Every interaction with your patient is either a deposit or a withdrawal. You return their phone call when you promised you would. Deposit. You explain why you’re running late. Deposit. 

You remember something they told you at their last visit. Deposit. You tell them you’ll call them with their results on Tuesday, and you actually call on Tuesday. Big deposit. But when calls aren’t returned, when nobody explains a delay, when a staff member is dismissive, when you make a promise and don’t follow through, those are withdrawals. And occasionally, there’s a very large withdrawal. That’s when the patient says, “I don’t know if I can trust this practice anymore.” 

Now, here’s where many practices make a mistake: they apologize and assume the account has been replenished. It hasn’t. The apology stopped the bleeding. Now you have to start making deposits again. 

Following Through and Demonstrating Change 

Dr. Barbara Hales 3:30 

Let me give you an example. Suppose a patient has called three times trying to get an important test result. 

Nobody calls back. Finally, they’re furious. They get through to you. You listen. You acknowledge what happened, and you say, “You’re right. You should not have had to call us three times. I’m sorry this happened. I’m going to look into what went wrong, and I’ll personally make sure you have an answer by tomorrow afternoon.” 

That’s a good response, but here’s the moment that determines whether trust starts coming back: tomorrow afternoon. Do you call? Because if you don’t, the second failure is much worse than the first. The patient no longer thinks they dropped the ball. Now they’re thinking even the doctor doesn’t keep promises. 

But imagine that you call at 11 o’clock the next morning, earlier than promised. You explain the results. You answer their questions, and before hanging up, you say, “I also looked into why your calls weren’t returned. We’ve addressed it with our team because I don’t want this to happen to you or another patient again.” 

That’s different. You didn’t just apologize. You demonstrated change, and that’s how trust begins to return. 

Handling Patient Complaints Without Becoming Defensive 

Dr. Barbara Hales 5:00 

Physicians sometimes make another mistake. We become defensive because we know the whole story. The patient waited an hour, but an emergency came up. The prescription wasn’t sent, but the pharmacy system was down. The staff members sounded abrupt, but three employees called out sick that morning. 

Those things may all be true, but when you lead with the explanation, the patient often hears an excuse: “Wah, wah, wah.” 

So first, acknowledge their experience, then clarify what happened, then explain what you’re going to do about it. There’s a big difference between “We were short-staffed” and “I understand why that was frustrating. We were unexpectedly short-staffed that morning, but we should have told you. We didn’t, and that’s something we need to fix.” 

Same facts, completely different experience, and there’s something else I want you to remember. Not every damaged relationship can or should be saved. Occasionally, despite your best efforts, a patient will decide to leave. 

Knowing When to Let Go and Following Through 

Dr. Barbara Hales 6:30 

You can listen. You can apologize. You can correct the problem. You can follow through, and they may still say, “I’m going somewhere else.” 

If that happens, don’t turn the conversation into a battle you have to win. You can say, “I understand. I’m sorry we didn’t provide the experience you expected. We’ll make sure your transition is handled appropriately, and I appreciate you telling us what happened.” 

Why? Because how you handle the last interaction matters too. That patient may leave your practice, but they don’t necessarily have to leave angry, and they may remember that when something went wrong, you treated them with dignity. 

Throughout this series, I’ve given you a framework for difficult patient conversations: listen, acknowledge, clarify, respond, follow through. 

Notice the last two words: follow through. That’s where trust is rebuilt. Not with the perfect apology. Not with a carefully written script. Not with a gift card, not with a clever explanation, but with behavior repeated, consistent, reliable behavior. 

Rebuilding Trust Through Consistent Actions and Better Communication 

Dr. Barbara Hales 8:00 

So here’s something I’d like you to do this week: think about one patient interaction that did not go the way you wanted. It doesn’t have to be catastrophic. Maybe someone complained about waiting. Maybe a message wasn’t returned. Maybe there was confusion about a bill. Maybe someone on your staff had a difficult interaction. 

Ask yourself one question: Did we solve the complaint, or did we rebuild the trust? Those aren’t necessarily the same thing. And if you’re not sure, make one more deposit. Make the phone call, send the message, check that the problem was actually resolved, and ask the patient how they’re doing. Sometimes five minutes of follow-up can repair a relationship that took years to build. 

If you’ve been following this entire trust series, I hope you take away at least one idea. 

Patients don’t expect perfection; they do expect honesty. They expect communication. They expect to be heard. And when something goes wrong, they watch very closely to see what you do next, because sometimes the moment that threatens trust can also become the moment that strengthens it. 

If you’d like help putting those ideas into practice, I’ve created the Patient Trust Guide. It walks you through practical ways to build trust before trouble happens, what to say when a patient is upset, and how to respond when that trust is on the line. 

You’ll find information about getting your copy with this episode, and if you are still struggling with patient communication, staff issues, or creating a practice that gives you more time and freedom, you can also schedule a complimentary discovery call with me. I’d be happy to think it through with you. I’m Dr. Barbara Hales. 

Thank you for joining me for this trust series on Marketing Tips for Doctors. Remember, great practices are not built with one dramatic change; they’re built through small decisions, small improvements, and promises kept. 

And sometimes the difference between a patient who walks away and one who trusts you for years is just one small change, because you’re one tweak away from greatness. I’ll see you next time. 

In this episode, Barbara discusses: 

Key Takeaways: 

Patient trust is built before problems arise through small, consistent actions like listening, communicating clearly, and keeping promises which makes challenges easier to navigate. 

Connect with Barbara Hales: 

Chapter 1:  Building Trust before Trouble 

0:00: Welcome to the Marketing Tips for Doctors podcast, where you’ll discover the secrets to attracting more patients ready to schedule their first appointments, so you can grow your practice without spending hours away from your practice or home.

Hear how to boost your online presence, build strong rapport with each patient to increase compliance, add value, and grow revenue. Now here’s your host, Dr. Barbara Hales, America’s leading medical strategist. What if I told you that the best time to repair patient trust is before you ever lose it? Sounds a little strange, doesn’t it? After all, how can you repair something that hasn’t been broken? But here’s what I’ve learned: the strongest patient relationships aren’t built when something goes wrong. They’re built long before there’s ever a problem, and that’s what we’re talking about today. Welcome back to Marketing Tips for Doctors. I’m your host, Dr. Barbara Hales, the medical strategist, and today we’re wrapping up our five-part series on one of the most valuable assets in your medical practice: patient trust.  

1:13 We’ve talked about transparency, taking responsibility, dealing with angry patients, and what happens when your own staff makes a difficult situation worse. But today, I want to talk about something that can make all those difficult conversations a whole lot easier: building trust before you need it. When patients already trust you, they’re much more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt when something doesn’t go according to plan, and believe me, in medicine, something eventually won’t go according to plan. That’s just reality. So grab your coffee and let’s think this through together. Imagine every patient has an invisible bank account, not filled with dollars, but with trust. Every positive interaction makes a deposit. Every disappointing interaction makes a withdrawal. When you listen carefully to a patient, that’s a deposit. When your staff returns a promised call, that’s a deposit. When you explain why you’re recommending a particular treatment instead of simply handing over a prescription, that’s another deposit. 

2:25 And when you remember something personal about your patient, maybe their daughter’s wedding or the fact that they’ve been caring for an elderly parent, that’s a deposit too. Now let’s look at the withdrawals. A patient waits 45 minutes without anyone explaining why the withdrawal. A patient calls with a concern and gets no response. Withdrawal. A staff member sounds irritated because the patient asked the same question twice. Another withdrawal. Individually, these may seem small, but they add up. And here’s where it gets interesting. If you’ve been making consistent deposits into that trust, one unfortunate experience probably won’t destroy the relationship. But if the account is already running low, one unpleasant interaction may be all it takes for that patient to decide they’re never coming back. Worse, they may tell everyone they know that trust starts before the patient sees you. 

Chapter 2: The Trust Account and the Patient Experience 

2:20 Now, if you are anything like me, you probably think about the patient relationship beginning when you walk into the examination room, but it actually starts much earlier. It may begin when someone visits your website. Does your website make your practice feel welcoming? Does it explain what patients can expect, or does it leave them confused? What happens when they call your office? Do they get a warm greeting, or do they feel like they’re interrupting someone’s day? And what about that first appointment? Are patients told what to bring? Do they understand the process? Do they know approximately how long the visit will take? These may sound like administrative details, but to a patient, they’re signals-signals 

Chapter 3: Reliability, communication, and listening 

4:14: about whether your practice is organized, whether you respect their time, and whether they’re going to be treated like a person, not a chart number. Remember, patients form opinions about you long before you have the chance to demonstrate your medical expertise, and those opinions shape how they interpret everything that follows. Let me ask you something: Have you ever told a patient, “I’ll have someone call you tomorrow. Only to discover three days later that nobody did. Of course, you didn’t intentionally mislead the patient. You got busy. Your staff got busy. Something slipped through the cracks.  

4:55 But from the patient’s perspective, you made a promise, and you didn’t. Keep it. That’s why I believe one of the simplest ways to strengthen patient trust is to become absolutely reliable about the small things. If you say you’ll call, call. If you promise results by Friday, make sure someone follows up, even if the results are not available yet. And if your office is running behind schedule. Tell the patient. Don’t make them sit there wondering whether they’ve been forgotten. You might say, “I’m sorry, we’re running behind today. An unexpected situation came up, and we appreciate your patience. That’s it. No elaborate explanation.  

5:38 No defensiveness. Just communicate, because uncertainty creates anxiety, and communication reduces it. Listen for the question behind the question. Here’s another opportunity to build trust that physicians sometimes miss. A patient asks you a question, you answer, and then they ask again, maybe in slightly different words. Now you are thinking, didn’t I just explain that? But consider this: sometimes the patient isn’t asking because they didn’t understand your explanation. They’re asking because they’re frightened. Imagine a patient who asks, “Are you sure this medication is safe? You explain the research, the benefits, and the potential side effects. Then, a few minutes later, they ask, “But are you really sure I should take it? You could repeat the same medical explanation, or you could say, “It sounds like there’s something about this medication that’s worrying you. Can you tell me what concerns you most? Suddenly, the conversation changes. 

6:43 Maybe their mother had a terrible reaction to a similar drug. Maybe they read something alarming online, or maybe they’re simply afraid of making the wrong decision. Until you understand the fear, you may not be answering the question that really matters. And when patients feel understood, that’s an enormous deposit into the trust account. 

Chapter 4: Reassurance, Explanations, and Honest Uncertainty  

7:15 Reassurance is not the same as dismissal. Physicians use a phrase with the best intentions. We say it because we want to reassure our patients. But sometimes those two words have the opposite effect. Imagine a patient describing symptoms that have been frightening them for weeks. You examine them and determine that nothing immediately dangerous is happening. So you say, “Don’t worry, everything looks fine. But the patient doesn’t feel fine, and now they feel dismissed. Instead, consider saying, “I can understand why these symptoms have been worrying you.  

7:45 Based on what we found today, I don’t see signs of an immediate emergency. Let me explain what I think is happening and what we should watch for. See the difference. You’re still reassuring the patient, but you’re also validating their experience, and you’re explaining your reasoning. Patients don’t need us to pretend that every answer is simple. They need to know we take their concerns seriously. Explain the why, not just the what. Think about how often we make recommendations during an ordinary office visit. Start this medication. Schedule that test. Come back in three months. Reduce your sodium. Increase your activity. 

8:28 And while those recommendations may be medically appropriate, patients don’t always understand why we’re making them. When patients understand the reasoning behind the recommendation, they’re more likely to feel involved in their care, instead of simply saying, “I want you to have this test, try. I’m recommending this test because it will help us distinguish between two possible explanations for your symptoms. That information will guide our next steps. Now the patient understands the purpose.  

8:59 They aren’t simply following orders; they’re participating in a decision, and participation creates a sense of partnership. That partnership is one of the foundations of trust. The power of saying “I don’t know. Here’s something else I want physicians to remember: you don’t have to know everything to earn a patient’s trust. In fact, pretending to know something when you’re uncertain can damage that trust far more than admitting the uncertainty.  

9:30 There’s nothing wrong with saying, “I don’t have a definite answer for you yet, but don’t stop there. Follow it with, “Here’s what we know so far. Here’s what we still need to find out, and here’s what I recommend we do next. That’s not weakness. That’s professional honesty. Patients understand that medicine is not always black and white. What they find much harder to accept is feeling that information is being withheld or that their concerns are being brushed aside, and that brings us. 

Chapter 5: Your Staff is part of the Trust Equation 

10:00: Right back to the transparency we discussed at the beginning of this series. Your staff is part of your trust equation. Now, here’s something that may be uncomfortable to hear. You can be the most compassionate physician in the world. You can explain everything beautifully. You can spend extra time with your patients, but if your front desk staff is consistently rude or dismissive, your patients may still lose confidence in your practice. Why? Because patients don’t separate you from your staff the way you do.  

10:35 To them, everyone represents the same practice- your practice- so building trust has to become part of your office culture. It can’t happen only when the physician enters the room. Your staff needs to understand how to acknowledge frustration, explain delays, and respond appropriately when patients are upset. And just as importantly, they need to know when to bring a concern to your attention. Think about the episode we did on staff escalating a difficult situation. One poorly handled conversation can undo months or even years of positive patient experiences, but the opposite is also true.  

11:22 One thoughtful staff member who listens, follows through, and treats a frustrated patient with respect can prevent a minor problem from becoming a major one. That’s why communication training is not just a customer service exercise; it’s part of protecting the patient relationship. As we finish this series, I want to connect the dots. In our first episode, we talked about the transparency paradox: how being open and honest, even when something goes wrong, can actually strengthen trust rather than destroy it.  

11:59 Then we explored what happens when patients believe the doctor is responsible for a disappointing experience. We talked about angry patients and why telling someone to calm down often makes the situation worse. We looked at how staff interactions can escalate a conflict that might otherwise have been resolved, and now we’re looking at the foundation beneath it all, the trust you build every single day. 

12:28 The best response to a patient complaint isn’t simply knowing what to say after the damage has occurred. It’s creating an environment where patients already believe that you care about them, respect them, and will do your best to make things right. That does not mean every patient will be happy, and it certainly doesn’t mean you’ll never receive a complaint. But it does mean you are building a stronger foundation for handling those situations when they arise. 

Chapter 6: Trust, Respect, and seeing the Practice through Patients’ Eyes  

12:20 Trust is not the same as being liked. Before we wrap up, I want to make one important distinction. Building trust does not mean trying to make every patient like you. Sometimes you have to deliver difficult news. Sometimes you have to recommend a treatment the patient does not want. Sometimes you have to explain why a requested test or medication isn’t appropriate, and sometimes you simply can’t give patients the answers they hope for.  

13:34 That’s part of practicing medicine responsibly. But you can still be respectful. You could still be compassionate. You can still explain your reasoning and make sure the patient feels heard. Trust does not require agreement. It requires honesty, consistency, competence, and respect. And those are things we can work on every day.  

13:59 So here’s what I’d like you to do this week. Take a few minutes to look at your practice through your patient’s eyes, not the physician’s. See it through the eyes of someone who may be anxious, confused, uncomfortable, or worried about their health. What happens when they call your office? How are they greeted? What happens when you’re running behind? How quickly are their questions answered? Does someone follow up when you’ve promised they would? When patients express concerns, do they feel heard? You don’t have to overhaul your entire practice. Start with one area, just one. Maybe it’s improving how your staff communicates appointment delays. Maybe it’s making sure every patient understands the next step in their care, or maybe it’s simply creating a reliable system for returning telephone calls. Choose one improvement and make it part of your routine, because trust isn’t built on one great moment. 

Chapter 7: The Trust Audit and Closing 

15:00: Gesture. It’s built through hundreds of small, consistent actions. This is the trust audit. Throughout the series, we’ve talked about difficult patient conversations, and I know that in the middle of a busy practice day, finding the right words isn’t always easy. That’s why I’ve created a special patient trust cheat sheet to help you and your staff navigate these moments. It includes practical language you can use when patients are angry, disappointed, frightened, or frustrated.  

15:36 Words that acknowledge their concerns without becoming defensive, and phrases that help turn difficult conversations into opportunities to rebuild trust. You can access this resource through our subscriber community. Once you’ve subscribed, follow the instructions to request your copy, and when you receive it, don’t just file it away. Print it out, share it with your office manager, and discuss it with your staff, because these conversations shouldn’t depend on whether someone happens to know the right words in the heat of the moment. Preparation makes a difference, and if you found this five-part series valuable, please subscribe to Marketing Tips for doctors and share these episodes with another physician who could benefit. As we finish today, I want to leave you with one thought: Patients may not remember every medical term you used. They may not remember every detail of the treatment plan, but they will remember whether you listened, whether you respected them, whether you kept your promises, and whether they felt they could trust you, so don’t wait for a complaint to start thinking about patient trust. Build it now, strengthen it every day, and protect it as carefully as you protect every other important part of your practice. Because when trust is strong, everything else becomes a little easier. I’m your host, Dr. Barbara Hales, the medical strategist. Thank you for joining me for this five-part trust series on marketing tips for doctors. And remember, you’re one tweet away from greatness. 

17:19 Thanks for listening to Marketing Tips for Doctors. If you like the podcast, please subscribe, rate, and review. Hit subscribe so you never miss an episode, and tell your friends about the show. Visit marketingtipsfordoctors.com for replays and more resources to help you grow your practice, strengthen your brand, and dominate your field. Remember, you are one tweet from greatness.  

In this episode, we cover:

Key Takeaway Quote:

“The goal is not patient versus practice. The goal is patient and practice versus the problem.”

Connect with Barbara Hales: 

TRANSCRIPT: (249)

Dr. Barbara Hales  00:04 

Your patient is angry. You know exactly what to say. You’re lowering your voice. You’re listening. You’re acknowledging the frustration, and it’s working. Then someone from your staff says, “Well, that’s not what happened. Oh no! Now the patient is angry. Your employee is angry, and you’re standing between them, thinking, “Could everybody please stop talking?

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Marketing Tips for Doctors. I’m Dr. Barbara Hales. Grab your coffee because today we’re talking about something that can undo even the best physician-patient communication. What happens when your staff escalates the situation? This is episode four of our trust series. In our last episode, we talked about the angry patient and how to keep a difficult conversation from turning into a confrontation.

But here’s the problem: you can be wonderful at de-escalation. You can know all the right phrases. You can have the patience of a saint, but if someone on your team is argumentative, defensive, or dismissive, the patient may never get far enough to experience your wonderful communication skills, and that brings us to one of the most important things I want you to remember today: your patient doesn’t experience your doctor. Your patient experiences your practice, including everyone who answers your phone, schedules appointments, discusses bills, handles prescriptions, and greets patients at the front desk.

When a prescription becomes an argument, consider this example. Linda calls the office because her prescription hasn’t been refilled. She’s frustrated. She says, “I’ve called twice already, and nobody has gotten back to me. The receptionist looks at the computer and says, “Well, I don’t see any record of those calls. Linda says, “I know I called. I left messages, and the receptionist responds, “That’s not true. You did not call us twice. Now what happened? We started with a missing prescription. That’s a problem we might have been able to solve, but now we have a completely different problem. Who’s telling the truth? Nobody wants to lose that argument. Linda becomes louder. The receptionist becomes more defensive, and suddenly the physician is being asked to step in. Here’s what I want you to notice: the receptionist may genuinely believe no calls came in. Maybe the calls weren’t documented. Maybe Linda called a different number. Maybe she remembers calling but never actually reached the office. We don’t know, but we don’t have to settle that argument before we address the problem. Imagine if the receptionist had said, “I’m not seeing those calls documented here. Let me look into it further and see what we can do about your prescription.” Same computer, same missing documentation, completely different Conversation.

Instead of fighting about who’s right, they’re working together to solve the problem, and I want your entire staff to understand that distinction. The goal is not patient versus practice. The goal is patient and practice versus the problem, not staff. Before we go any further, I want to be fair to your employees, because patients can be difficult. Yes, that’s true. Sometimes they’re demanding, sometimes they’re unreasonable, and sometimes they’re downright rude. Unfortunately, all true. Your receptionist may have been answering phones nonstop for three hours. Your medical. Assistant may be covering for someone who called out sick. Your billing employee may have explained the same insurance issue 15 times that morning, and now somebody is accusing them of incompetence. Of course, they’re frustrated. They’re human, but here’s the distinction: feeling defensive is understandable.

Responding defensively is not always helpful, and that’s where training comes in. We can’t expect staff members to instinctively know how to de-escalate every difficult situation, especially if nobody has ever taught them what to say. Five phrases make things worse. I would love to retire from medical offices with these five phrases. The first is “calm down. We talked about this in the last episode. Has anyone ever become calmer because somebody ordered them to calm down? I haven’t seen it. The second is that’s not what happened. Even if it’s true, it will likely turn the conversation into an argument. Try, let me see what I can find out. The third is that’s our policy. Patients often hear that as stop asking questions. Instead, try. Let me explain why we handle it this way and see what options we have. The fourth is There’s nothing I can do. Try. Here’s what I can do. And the fifth is that’s not my job. 

Dr. Barbara Hales  07:01 

Oh, that one is particularly irritating. The patient doesn’t necessarily know who handles what in your office, and frankly, they shouldn’t have to memorize your organizational chart. Try billing; they handle that, but I’ll connect you with the right person. See the difference. You’re not promising something you can’t deliver. You’re simply refusing to make the patient feel abandoned.

Let’s look at another situation: the $75 copay. Frank arrives for an appointment. The front desk tells him he owes a $75 copay. Frank says, “I already paid that. The employee looks at the screen. “No, you didn’t. It’s showing as unpaid. Frank says, “I have the receipt. The employee says, “Well, our system says you owe it, and now we’re off to the races. Frank thinks the practice is trying to charge him twice. The employee thinks Frank is being difficult, and the physician may not even know any of this is happening. What could the employee say instead? I can see why you’re concerned about being charged twice. Our system isn’t showing the payment, but let’s investigate before we collect anything again. Now the employee hasn’t admitted the practice made a mistake, and they haven’t accused Frank of being wrong. They’re simply moving the conversation toward a solution. That’s the skill. Does the doctor even know?

I want to tell you about a conversation I actually had. This wasn’t one of my patients. I was speaking with a patient who was complaining about how rude the staff was in another physician’s office, and I said something to the effect of, “Maybe the doctor doesn’t know they’re behaving that way. The patient looked at me as though that was ridiculous. She said, “Of course the doctor knows. If the doctor didn’t condone it, it wouldn’t happen. That stayed with me because I remember thinking, “Does the doctor really know? The doctor may be two exam rooms away seeing patients. They’re not necessarily hearing how the telephone is being answered. They’re not standing at the front desk; when somebody questions a bill, they’re not listening.

When a frustrated patient asks for the third time why a prescription hasn’t been called in, the doctor may genuinely have no idea. But here’s the part that matters. The patient assumes you do, and if the behavior continues, they don’t necessarily think, “What an unpleasant receptionist.” They may think this is the kind of practice this doctor allows. Fair, maybe not, but perception doesn’t wait for all the evidence, which brings us to an uncomfortable leadership question: How do you know what’s happening in your practice when you’re not in the room? What if you could hear it yourself? Think about that for a moment. The way your staff speaks to patients when you’re standing there may differ from how they speak to patients when you’re two exam rooms away. That doesn’t mean you assume your staff is doing something wrong. It means good leadership does not rely on assumptions from either side.

One possible tool for training and quality improvement is reviewing appropriately obtained recordings of patient interactions. I mean telephone conversations, and we are legally permitted to review, and have properly obtained consent for, certain in-person conversations. Imagine being able to review a difficult interaction with your office manager and ask, “How could we have handled this conversation differently? Not who we can blame, not who deserves to be reprimanded, but what we can learn. Sometimes hearing your own words is more powerful than having somebody tell you what you said. An employee might not realize how abrupt their tone sounded. They might not realize they interrupted the patient repeatedly, or that a phrase they thought was perfectly reasonable sounded dismissive. But I want to be clear: recording patient interactions raises important legal and privacy issues.

Recording and consent laws vary by state and depend on the circumstances and jurisdiction. Consent from everyone involved may be required, and in a medical practice, the recording may capture protected health information. So, don’t put a hidden recorder at your front desk or in an exam room and assume it’s okay. Before implementing any recording program, telephone or in person, have your healthcare attorney, compliance or privacy professional, establish what is permitted, how appropriate notice and consent will be obtained, where recordings can occur, how they’re secured, who can access them, and how long they’re retained. 

Dr. Barbara Hales  13:19 

The purpose should be education and quality improvement, not secretly catching employees doing something wrong. And remember, you don’t need recordings to start improving communication. You can begin with role-playing, patient feedback, direct observation, and staff training. The key is to know what’s happening in your practice, not just assume. Now, let’s say the situation is already escalating. A patient and employee are arguing. You walk in. What should you do? First, don’t humiliate your employee publicly. You don’t want to say, “Why would you say something so stupid? That doesn’t help anybody, and you don’t want to throw your employee under the bus just to make the patient happy.

Instead, take control of the conversation calmly. You might say, “I can see we’re having trouble resolving this. Let’s figure out what happened and what we can do next. If necessary, move the conversation to a private space. Let the patient explain the concern, then determine the next step. Later, after the patient leaves, speak privately with the employee, and don’t start with, “You can’t talk to patients.” Start by telling me what happened from your perspective.

Listen, then ask What were you trying to accomplish when you said that. You may discover the employee was trying to defend the practice, correct misinformation, or prevent an inappropriate request. Their intention may have been perfectly reasonable, but the language didn’t achieve what they meant. Now you can coach. Next time, instead of saying that’s not true, try Let me see what I can find out. That’s actionable, that’s teachable, and that’s much more useful than simply telling someone to be nicer. What about when a scheduling error turns into a battle?

Here’s another example: James arrives for what he believes is a 2 p.m. appointment. The medical assistant says, “Your appointment was at three.” James insists No. They told me two. The employee responds. Well, the schedule says three. James says Then your office made a mistake. The employee says, “We didn’t make a mistake, and now you’re arguing over a scheduling discrepancy.” An office manager steps in and says, “It sounds like there was a misunderstanding about the appointment time. Let’s see what we can do to take care of you. Notice what she didn’t do: she didn’t decide who was right. She didn’t accuse anyone of lying. She did not promise an appointment she couldn’t provide. She redirected the conversation towards a solution, and sometimes that’s all it takes.

Teach your staff when to get help. One of the most useful things you can do is establish a clear escalation plan, because not every difficult patient interaction needs the physician, but staff should know when they’re getting in over their heads. I like to think of it in three levels. Level one, frustration. The patient is unhappy. Maybe they’re upset about waiting, a bill, or a scheduling issue, but they’re communicating. They’re willing to listen, and the employee can usually handle the situation by listening, acknowledging, and working towards a solution. Level two: escalating. The patient’s voice is rising. The employee is becoming defensive. They are repeating the same arguments. Nobody is getting anywhere. That’s when staff should get help. Maybe from an office manager, maybe from a supervisor, maybe from the physician if appropriate. And I want your employees to understand something: a handoff is a skill, not a failure. Knowing when to bring in help is part of good judgment.

Level three: unsafe or abusive

Now we’re talking about threats, intimidation, harassment, discriminatory abuse, or physical aggression. That’s different. Your employees are not required to tolerate abuse. Your practice needs clear safety procedures for these situations. Empathy doesn’t mean letting someone threaten your staff. You can be compassionate and still maintain boundaries. In fact, you should. What about the hot-headed employee? Now let’s address the elephant in the room. What if an employee seems to argue with everybody? You coach them. You give them scripts. You explain the importance of patient communication, and the behavior continues. At some point, this becomes a performance issue, because one employee can undermine the reputation you’ve spent years building. But before you decide the problem is simply a bad attitude, look at the environment. Is the employee overwhelmed? Is the practice chronically understaffed? Are patients routinely waiting too long? Are billing policies confusing? Does your team have any authority to solve? 

Dr. Barbara Hales  19:59 

Are they constantly told to enforce policies they didn’t create and can’t explain? Because if five employees are suddenly short-tempered, maybe you don’t have five employee problems. Maybe you have one systems problem, and fixing it may do more for patient trust than any customer-service lecture. Let’s look at the practice before the problem happens.

Here’s something I would encourage you to do at your next staff meeting. Spend 10 minutes role-playing. I know nobody loves role-playing, but it’s better to practice a difficult conversation when everyone is calm than to invent the right words when someone is yelling at you. Give your staff a scenario. A patient says, “I’ve called three times, and nobody ever calls me back. Ask, what would you say? Let someone answer, then discuss it. Try another. Your office is trying to charge me twice, or I’ve been waiting an hour. This is ridiculous. Practice the response, not just the words, but the tone, pace, body language, and ability to listen without interrupting, because de-escalation is a skill, and skills improve with practice.

Here are five phrases everyone should know

If I could put five phrases on a card at every workstation, they would be these. Tell me what happened. I can understand why you’re frustrated. Let me see what I can find out. Here’s what I can do, and I think we need some help resolving this. Let me get the appropriate person. Simple, yes, but sometimes simple is exactly what people need when emotions are running high, and I put another card right beside it. Five phrases to retire. Calm down. That’s not what happened. That’s our policy. There’s nothing I can do. That’s not my job.

Just replacing those phrases can make an enormous difference in how patients experience your practice. Support your staff too. I want to emphasize something before we finish. Your staff needs to know you support them, not just when they’re right, but when they’re trying to do the right thing in a difficult situation. Tell them, “I expect you to treat patients respectfully, and I expect patients to treat you respectfully too. That’s an important message. You can hold employees accountable without making them feel disposable, and you can protect patients without assuming every complaint means your staff did something wrong.

Good leadership requires both. This is marketing too. Now you may be wondering, Barbara, what does all of this have to do with marketing? Everything. Think about how much time and money physicians spend trying to attract new patients: websites, social media, online advertising, search engine optimization, reviews, referrals, all designed to bring someone into the practice, and then that person calls and has a terrible experience, or arrives for an appointment and gets into an argument at the front desk, or has a billing question and is told that’s not my job. Your marketing worked. Your experience failed, and the patient may never come back. Worse, they may tell other people. Your receptionist may never think of herself as part of your marketing team, but she is. So are your medical assistant, your biller, your scheduler, and everyone else who interacts with your patients, because your reputation isn’t built only on what you say about your practice. It’s built by what patients experience when they deal with your practice. You’re one tweak this week.

Here’s what I’d like you to do at your next staff meeting: choose one phrase your team uses that may be making difficult conversations worse. Just one. Maybe it’s that’s our policy. Replace it with, ” Let me explain why we handle it this way and see what options we have. Practice it. Encourage your team to use it, and watch what happens. You don’t have to change everything overnight; start with one phrase, one conversation, one small improvement, because those small changes can protect something enormously valuable. Patient trust. Before we go, I’ve created a free patient trust guide called “When Trust Is on the Lion. It’s designed for you and your entire team. You’ll find information on how to access it in the description, and if you found today’s episode helpful, share it with your office manager or staff. Just don’t send it with the subject line “This is about you. 

Dr. Barbara Hales  26:36 

That probably won’t help with de-escalation. Also, subscribe to Marketing Tips for Doctors, because in our next episode we’re going to turn this entire conversation around. We’ve spent four episodes talking about what happens after trust is threatened, but what if we stopped waiting until something went wrong? What if your website, your staff, your communication, your office systems, and you were deliberately building trust with patients from the very first interaction? Could you create enough trust before a problem happens that your relationship is strong enough to survive one when it does? That’s what we’re going to talk about next: building trust before trouble. I’m your host, Dr. Barbara Hales. Thank you for joining me on Marketing Tips for Doctors, and remember, you’re one tweak away from greatness. Until next time. 

In this episode, we cover:

Key Takeaway Quote:

“Your goal is not to win the argument. Your goal is to understand the experience. Because you can be technically correct and still completely lose the patient.” – Dr. Barbara Hales

Connect with Barbara Hales: 

TRANSCRIPT (248)

Dr. Barbara Hales 0:06

Your patient is furious, and unfortunately, they have Wi-Fi.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Marketing Tips for Doctors. In our first episode, we talked about trust and the transparency paradox. We challenged the old belief that when something goes wrong, saying less always protects the physician. Then we tackled one of the hardest questions a patient can ask: “Doctor, was this your fault? And we talked about what physicians can actually say when they don’t yet have all the answers.

Today we’re taking the next step because sometimes the patient isn’t calmly asking questions. Sometimes they’re angry, really, really angry. They’re angry about the bill. They’re angry because they waited an hour and 15 minutes to see you. They’re angry because nobody returned their call. They’re angry because you didn’t send their prescription to the pharmacy. They’re angry because they think you didn’t listen to them, or they’re angry because the outcome wasn’t what they expected, and now they’re standing at your front desk saying those words everyone in the office dreads. I’m going to leave you a terrible review. What happens next may determine whether you lose a patient, receive a one-star review, damage your reputation, or actually strengthen the relationship. So grab your coffee because today we’re talking about the angry patient, and I’m going to give you actual words to use.

First, stop trying to win. Here’s the first thing I want you to remember: your goal is not to win the argument. I know sometimes the patient is wrong, completely wrong. They arrived 25 minutes late, and they’re furious because they had to wait. They didn’t follow the instructions you gave them. The office called three times, and they didn’t return the calls. The charge they’re screaming about is clearly explained in the paperwork they signed. You have facts. You have documentation. You may even have witnesses. And every cell in your body wants to say, actually, be careful, because you can win the argument and still lose the patient. And now that patient has a smartphone, being technically correct does not necessarily repair an emotional experience. Before you correct the facts, you need to understand what the patient believes happened. The waiting room.

Let’s imagine a patient named Susan. Susan has a 10 o’clock appointment. At 11 o5′ she’s still sitting in the waiting room. Nobody has told her why. She finally walks up to the receptionist and says, “This is ridiculous. My time matters too. The receptionist answers, “The doctor had an emergency. We’re doing the best we can now. Is that true? Probably. Is it helpful? Not particularly, because what Susan hears is, “Your inconvenience doesn’t matter because we have a good excuse. Then the receptionist makes it worse. Would you like to reschedule? Oh boy, Susan has already rearranged her morning, driven to the office, and waited more than an hour. Now we’re suggesting she do it all again.

Imagine instead that someone had gone into the waiting room 30 minutes earlier and said, “Dr. Smith had an emergency this morning, and we’re running behind. I’m really sorry we didn’t tell you sooner. Right now, we’re estimating another 30-minute wait. I can give you some options if that doesn’t work for you. Same delay, same doctor, same emergency, completely different experience. What changed? Not the problem, the communication. Sometimes you cannot fix what’s making the patient angry, but you can fix how they’re experiencing it. Don’t say “calm down.

Here’s a phrase I’d like to banish from every medical office. You need to calm down. Has that sentence ever calmed anyone down? Imagine your spouse saying it to you during an argument. How’s that going to work out? Probably not well. “ Calm down” communicates that your emotional reaction is the problem. Instead, try. I can see that you’re upset. Tell me what happened. Then stop talking. This is harder than it sounds. Doctors are problem solvers. While the patient is speaking, our brains are already generating solutions. But an angry person who doesn’t feel heard usually doesn’t get less angry because you interrupted them with a solution. Let them finish. You may discover that what they’re actually angry about isn’t what you assumed. Story number two: The $300 bill. Let’s meet Robert. Robert receives a $300 bill he wasn’t expecting. He calls the practice, furious. I was told insurance covered this. The staff member responds, “You need to call your insurance company. That’s your deductible.

Dr. Barbara Hales 6:43

That may be factually correct, but Robert doesn’t hear. Here’s an explanation. He hears, not our problem. So he asks for the office manager. Now he’s angrier. By the time the office manager gets on the phone, Robert says this practice is a scam. Here’s where things can go badly very quickly. The office manager can defend the practice. We are absolutely not a scam. Or she can say, I can hear how frustrating it was to receive a bill you weren’t expecting. Let’s look at what happened together. Notice something important. She didn’t say the bill was wrong. She didn’t promise to waive it. She did not blame the insurance company. She acknowledged the problem and offered to investigate it. Then she can say, “Let me pull up your account so I can explain exactly where this charge came from. Now we’re moving from confrontation to problem-solving, and that phrase, “Let’s look at this together, is incredibly powerful. Suddenly, it’s no longer patient versus practice. It’s patient and practice versus problem. That’s where you want to be.

The five-step reset

So let’s make this practical. When an angry patient is in front of you, remember five steps: one, listen. Don’t interrupt unless there’s a safety issue. Let the patient tell you what happened. Two, acknowledge. You don’t have to agree with every accusation. You can say, “I understand why that would be frustrating, or “I can see why you’re upset. Three, clarify. Ask what concerns you most right now. That question is gold, because the answer may surprise you. Four, respond now and only now. Explain what you know. Keep it simple. No defensive speech. No 10-minute explanation of office policy. Five. Follow through. If you say you’ll call tomorrow, call tomorrow. If you say someone will investigate. Make sure somebody investigates, because nothing reignites anger faster than a broken promise.

But what if the patient is wrong? Now we’re getting to the fun part. What if the patient is absolutely, positively wrong? Let’s say a patient tells you Nobody ever told me I needed this follow-up test. You look at the chart; it’s documented. You discussed it. Your nurse discussed it. The portal message was sent. The patient even replied to. Message; your temptation is to say, ” Actually, we told you three times, technically correct, terrible opening. Try this instead. I can see there was a disconnect somewhere because you didn’t leave understanding that the follow-up was necessary. Let’s go through what happened and make sure we’re clear about what you need now. Does that mean you’re accepting blame? No. It means you’re prioritizing the patient’s care over proving you’re right. You can review the documentation afterward, but first solve the problem that’s in front of you.

Story number three: the patient who felt dismissed

Now let’s talk about something even more personal. A patient we’ll call Diane comes in with fatigue, headaches, and difficulty sleeping. The physician evaluates her, orders appropriate tests, and finds nothing alarming. He tells her everything looks fine. He thinks he’s giving her good news. Diane hears There’s nothing wrong with you. She leaves furious. Later, she writes, “The doctor didn’t listen to me and dismissed all my symptoms. Now, imagine the physician reading that review. His immediate reaction might be, “That’s completely unfair. I spent 30 minutes with her. I ordered tests, and he may be right, but remember something: intent and experience are not always the same thing. He meant to reassure her; she felt dismissed. What if he had said The good news is that the testing we’ve done so far has not shown anything dangerous, but I know you’re still having these symptoms, and I don’t want you to think I’m dismissing them.

Let’s talk about what we do next. Same test results, different experience. Sometimes the sentence you add at the end changes everything. When the patient says, “I’m going to sue you, now let’s tackle the sentence that makes everyone’s stomach drop. I’m going to sue you. This is not the moment to say, “Go ahead, please don’t say that. It’s also not the time to debate the merits of a potential lawsuit. Once a patient threatens legal action, follow your organization’s policies and notify the appropriate risk management or malpractice professionals. But in the moment, you can still remain calm. You might say, “I can hear how upset you are.

Dr. Barbara Hales 13:05

I want to make sure your concerns are taken seriously, and I’ll make sure the appropriate people are aware of them. Don’t argue. Don’t threaten. Don’t promise outcomes, and don’t suddenly become a robot. Professional doesn’t have to mean cold. And then there’s the online review. Now we arrive at the Wi-Fi. The patient says, “Everyone is going to hear about this.

Here’s what I don’t want you to do. Don’t say If you post something false, we’ll respond. Don’t say you can’t write that, and please don’t start negotiating for five stars while the person is still furious. Your objective is to address the underlying complaint because many negative reviews begin long before somebody opens Google. They begin with the feeling nobody listened to me. If you can address that feeling before the patient leaves your office, you may prevent the conflict from escalating, not because you’re manipulating them into avoiding a bad review, but because you’re actually resolving the problem. That’s reputation management at its best.

What if the review is already online? Now suppose you’re too late. You wake up Monday morning, and there it is: one star, and it’s long, very long. Your name is mentioned seven times. Your staff is furious, and you desperately want to respond. That’s not what happened. Don’t, at least not immediately, because there’s another person. Reading that exchange, actually, there may be hundreds of them. Your future patients-they’re not only judging the angry reviewer; they’re judging you. Because healthcare information is protected, your public response also has privacy considerations. You cannot simply publish details from someone’s medical record to prove that you are right. So your public response needs to remain professional and protect patient privacy. Something along the lines of, “We’re sorry to hear that you are unhappy with your experience. We take concerns seriously and would welcome the opportunity to speak with you directly. Please contact our office so we can discuss this further. Simple, professional. No diagnosis, no treatment details, no argument. Then take the conversation offline.

Remember, your response isn’t only for the person who wrote the review; it’s for every prospective patient who reads it later. They’re asking themselves, “How does this doctor behave when somebody is unhappy? Show them when anger crosses the line now. I want to make something very clear: empathy does not mean tolerating abuse. A patient can be angry, complain, or disagree with you, but threatening, discriminatory, abusive, or dangerous behavior is different. Your staff deserves a safe workplace, so there is absolutely a point where you may need to say, “I want to help resolve this, but I can’t continue the conversation while you’re speaking to my staff that way. If we could speak respectfully, I’m happy to continue. That’s not being uncaring. That’s having boundaries. And if there’s a genuine safety threat, follow your office safety procedures. You can have empathy and boundaries at the same time.

The three sentences I want your staff to know. If I were training a medical office tomorrow, I’d want every staff member to know these three sentences. Tell me what happened. I can understand why you’re frustrated. Let’s see what we can do next. Notice what isn’t there. You’re wrong. That’s our policy. There’s nothing I can do. You need to call your insurance company. You’ll have to speak to someone else. Those phrases shut conversations down. The three phrases I gave you open conversations up, and sometimes that’s all you need to lower the temperature enough to solve the actual problem. Now here’s where this all comes back to marketing tips for doctors.

Doctors often think reputation management means getting more five-star reviews. Respond to Google reviews. Improve your website. Post on social media. Yes, those things matter. But real reputation management happens before the review is ever written. It happens at the front desk; it happens on the telephone. It happens when you’re running an hour behind. It happens when there’s a billing problem. It happens when a patient feels ignored, and it happens when something goes wrong. Every one of those moments gives your practice an opportunity- not an opportunity to manipulate the patient, but an opportunity to show them who you are, because your brand isn’t what your website says about you.

Dr. Barbara Hales 19:12

Your brand is what patients say about you after they’ve experienced you, and sometimes the patient who was initially the angriest becomes the patient who tells everyone there was a problem, but you should have seen how they handled it. That’s powerful. Not because everything went perfectly, because it didn’t. Trust was tested, and the practice responded. One last thing. So the next time an angry patient is standing in front of you, remember: don’t try to win. Try to understand. Listen before you explain. Acknowledging emotion without agreeing to something that isn’t true doesn’t work.

Find out what the patient actually wants resolved. Explain what happens next, and if you promise to follow up, follow up, because sometimes the difference between a furious patient and a loyal patient isn’t whether something went wrong. It’s what happened after it went wrong. And yes, sometimes that difference happens within a few minutes of them getting home. Sit down with their phone and discover they have Wi-Fi. That is the time you can make a difference. Now we’ve spent three episodes talking about what happens when trust is tested, but there’s another question we haven’t addressed:

Can you build that trust before anything ever goes wrong? Absolutely, and that’s what we’ll talk about next, because the strongest physician-patient relationships don’t begin in crisis; they’re built long before one happens. If you’ve been enjoying this series, subscribe to Marketing Tips for Doctors and share this episode with another physician or practice manager. Remember your one tweak from greatness.

In this episode, we cover:

Key Takeaway Quote:

“Patients don’t expect perfection. They expect honesty. Sometimes the most trust-building thing you can say is, ‘I don’t know yet, but I’ll come back when we do.’” – Dr. Barbara Hales

Connect with Barbara Hales: 

TRANSCRIPT (247)

Dr. Barbara Hales 0:02

Doctor, was it your fault? Your patient looks you directly in the eye and asks, “Doctor, was this your fault? What do you say? You have about three seconds before the silence starts saying something for you.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Marketing Tips for Doctors. In our last episode, we talked about something I called the transparency paradox-the idea that when something goes wrong, physicians may become quiet and guarded, because we’re afraid that talking will increase our liability. But to the patient, that same silence can feel like we’re hiding something. So today, we’re going one step further because it’s easy for me to tell you: communicate with your patient, be transparent, show empathy. But when you’re actually standing in front of an upset patient or frightened family member, those aren’t the words you need. You need to know what I actually say.

Today, we’ll walk through five of the most difficult conversations a physician can have after something goes wrong. I’ll show you what you may be tempted to say, why it can cause problems, and what you might say instead. And before we begin, an important reminder: this is about communication, not legal advice. Every adverse event’s circumstances are different. State laws differ, and your hospital malpractice carrier or risk management team may have specific procedures you need to follow, so use this episode to think differently about communication, not as a substitute for the policies and professional advice that apply to your particular situation. Now grab your coffee because we’re starting with the question no physician wants to hear: Doctor, was this your fault?

Imagine that you’ve just finished explaining to a patient that something unexpected happened during her procedure. She looks at you and asks, “Was this your fault? Your first instinct may be to defend yourself. No, this is a known complication. Or maybe you go in the opposite direction. Yes, I made a mistake. But what if you don’t know yet? That’s the key. Don’t answer a question you don’t yet have the facts to answer. You don’t have to become evasive, and you don’t have to speculate. You can say, “I understand why you’re asking me that right now. I don’t know exactly why this happened. We’re reviewing what occurred, and I don’t want to give you an answer that may turn out to be wrong. As soon as we know more, we’ll talk about it. That’s honest. You didn’t run from the question. You didn’t blame someone else, and you didn’t conclude before you had the facts.

There is tremendous power in being able to say, “I don’t know yet. Doctors aren’t always comfortable saying that. We’re supposed to have answers. Patients come to us because we have answers. But when you genuinely don’t know something. Pretending otherwise doesn’t make you look more competent. It makes you less trustworthy when the facts eventually come out. The important word is yet. I don’t know can sound like a dead end. I don’t know yet, but we’re finding out tells the patient, “I’m still here.

Conversation number two: something definitely went wrong. Now, let’s change the situation. This time, you know an error occurred. Perhaps the wrong medication was administered. Maybe a test result wasn’t followed up. Maybe something broke down somewhere in the system. Again, there’s a temptation to become clinical. An adverse medication event occurred. That may be technically accurate, but imagine. As the patient hearing it, I know an adverse medication event didn’t happen to a spreadsheet. It happened to me. This is where medicine sometimes hides behind language. We use terms like unexpected outcome, adverse event, communication failure. Those phrases may be long in reports, but you’re not talking to a report. You’re talking to a person. So use human language. Something happened that shouldn’t have, and I’m sorry you’ve had to go through this. Then tell the patient what you know, not what you assume, not what you heard in the hallway, not what you think is responsible. What you know, and then tell them what happens next. We are reviewing exactly how this occurred. We’re addressing the immediate problem. We’ll keep you informed as we learn more. That last sentence matters because one of the worst things you can do is have one compassionate conversation and then disappear. Trust isn’t rebuilt in one meeting.

Dr. Barbara Hales 6:20

Sometimes it’s rebuilt in the second meeting and the third. Let’s imagine a physician will call Dr. Miller. One of his patients has a significant complication. Dr. Miller has an excellent conversation with the family. He sits down. He listens. He expresses concern. He promises that the hospital will investigate and that he’ll come back when he knows more. The family feels reassured. Three days go by, nothing. Five days, nothing. The family starts calling. They’re transferred from one department to another. Nobody seems to know anything.

Now think about what happened. Dr. Miller’s original conversation was actually good, but his failure to follow through changed its meaning. What originally sounded like “I’m going to find out what happened” now sounds like “I told you that so you’d stop asking questions. That’s why one of the most important things you can say after something goes wrong is also one of the simplest. I’ll come back, but only say it if you’re actually going to come back. Conversation number three: the patient is angry. Now things get harder. The patient isn’t calmly asking questions. He’s furious. You people almost killed me. This hospital is incompetent. You don’t care what happens to me. Every instinct in you wants to correct him. We did not almost kill you. That’s not what happened. You’d unders. You don’t understand the medical situation, and perhaps technically you’re right, but right now being right isn’t necessarily going to help you, because underneath anger there is often something else: fear, loss of control, pain, a feeling that nobody is listening.

So before you correct the facts, acknowledge the emotion. You might say, “I can see how angry and frightened you are, and I understand why you want answers. Notice what you did not say. You didn’t agree that the hospital was incompetent. You didn’t accept blame for something you didn’t do. You acknowledged the patient’s experience. There is a big difference between saying you’re right, we almost killed you, and saying I can understand why you’re frightened and angry. One is the conclusion about what happened. The other is empathy.

Physicians sometimes avoid empathy because we’re afraid the patient will interpret it as an admission. But empathy isn’t a confession. It’s recognition that another human being is having a difficult experience, and sometimes that’s the first thing a person needs before they’re capable of hearing anything else you have to say. There’s one sentence that is almost guaranteed to make an angry patient angrier. You need to calm down. Has telling an angry person to calm down ever actually made them calm down? Probably not. It usually communicates that your reaction is the problem.

Instead, try. I can see that you’re upset. Tell me what concerns you most right now, and then listen. Don’t start constructing your defense while they’re still speaking. Don’t interrupt after the first inaccurate statement. Let them tell you what they’re actually worried about. You may discover that the thing you’re preparing to defend isn’t even the thing they’re most upset about.

Conversation number four: Why didn’t anyone tell me? This one is painful because sometimes the patient’s complaint isn’t primarily about the medical outcome; it’s about communication. Why didn’t anyone tell me? Why did I have to find this in my medical record? Why did three different people give me three different answers? Why did nobody call me? This is where defensiveness can creep in very quickly. I thought the nurse told you. The office called twice. The result was available in the portal.

Stop. Maybe all of those things are true, but before explaining the system, recognize what the patient experienced. I can understand why finding out that way would be upsetting. You should have had a clear explanation of what was happening. Then explain what you know, and if there was a communication breakdown, acknowledge it. Patients don’t expect every medical outcome to be perfect. Medicine is not perfect. Human bodies are not perfect. Technology is not perfect. Doctors are not perfect, but patients have every reason to expect us to communicate with them honestly, and this is where the conversation starts moving beyond malpractice, because poor communication damages something much bigger: trust. Conversation number five: When an apology is appropriate, now we come to the words doctors have traditionally been afraid to say. I’m sorry. As we discussed in the last episode, apology laws vary from state to state.

Dr. Barbara Hales 12:53

Some may protect certain expressions of sympathy while not protecting admissions of fault. Your organization’s procedures and your individual circumstances matter. So I’m not giving you a legal formula. I’m talking about human communication. If someone has experienced suffering, you can acknowledge suffering. I’m sorry you’ve had to go through this. If an investigation has established what happened, then the appropriate disclosure process may involve a more specific apology and explanation, and that’s where working with your institution or risk management team becomes important. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that because you need to choose your words thoughtfully, you need to stop behaving like a human being.

There’s a difference between being careful and being cold. Now let’s put it together. Imagine you’re walking into a patient’s room after an unexpected event; you know something happened. You don’t know yet exactly what. Here’s what a thoughtful conversation might sound like, Mrs. Green. I want to talk with you about what happened earlier today. There was an unexpected problem with your medication. Right now, our priority is making sure you’re all right, and we’re monitoring you closely. I’m sorry you’ve had to experience this. We’re reviewing exactly what happened. I don’t have all of those answers yet, and I don’t want to speculate or give you information that might turn out to be wrong. As we learn more, we’ll share that information with you. What questions do you have for me right now?

Notice how ordinary those words are: no corporate language. No medical jargon, no elaborate speech. You acknowledge, you empathize, you explain, you admit what you don’t know, you explain what happens next, and you invite questions. That’s communication. But what if they ask the question again? Fine, doctor. But I asked you a question. Was this your fault? Now we’re right back where we started, and this is where many physicians panic. You don’t have to look at the patient. Don’t look at the floor. Don’t start shuffling papers and say, “I understand why you want an answer to that. I would want an answer too. Right now, we don’t know enough for me to tell you exactly why this happened. I don’t want to guess. When we know more, we’ll discuss it with you. That’s not avoiding the question. It’s refusing to pretend you know something you don’t. But here’s the other side: if the investigation eventually determines that an error occurred, transparency means the conversation should not simply disappear. You come back because the promise wasn’t. I’ll talk to you until this becomes uncomfortable. The promise was we’ll tell you what we learn.

The second victim, we don’t talk about. There’s another reason these conversations are so difficult. The physician may be suffering too. When something goes wrong with one of our patients, we don’t simply clock out and forget about it. We replay it. What did I miss? Could I have prevented this? Should I have ordered another test? Should I have noticed something earlier, and then we have to walk into the next room and see the next patient? That emotional burden can make us withdraw from the very patient we need to communicate with, not because we don’t care.

Sometimes because we care so much that we don’t know what to say. That’s why having a framework helps. When your emotions are telling you to retreat, the framework reminds you: acknowledge, empathize, explain. Don’t speculate. Follow up. You don’t need the perfect speech. You need to stay present. Five phrases to remember. So, if you ever find yourself standing outside that patient’s room, wondering what you’re going to say, remember these five phrases. I’m sorry you’re going through this. Here’s what we know right now. I don’t know yet. We’re looking into what happened, and perhaps the most important. I’ll come back when we know more. Then come back. Those aren’t magic words. They don’t guarantee that a patient won’t become angry. They don’t guarantee that somebody won’t sue, and they don’t replace appropriate lethal or risk management guidance. They’re simply ways to communicate like one human being talking to another during an extraordinarily difficult moment.

Dr. Barbara Hales 19:09

Why does this matter to your practice? You might still be wondering why spending two episodes of marketing tips for doctors talking about what happens when medical care goes wrong matters, because your reputation isn’t built by your website; it’s not built by your logo; it’s not built by your Facebook page.

Those things communicate your reputation. They don’t create it. Your reputation is created in moments. The moment you return the frightened patient’s phone call, the moment you sit instead of standing at the door, the moment you listen instead of becoming defensive, and yes, the moment something goes wrong and your patient watches to see what you do next. Patients don’t expect physicians to control everything that can happen, but they do remember how we made them feel when they were frightened and vulnerable, and that memory may last much longer than anything you put on your website.

One last question. Let’s return to where we started. Your patient looks you in the eye and asks, “Doctor, was this your fault? You don’t need to panic. You don’t need to run. You don’t need to speculate. You can say, “I understand why you’re asking. I don’t know yet. We’re going to find out, and I’ll talk with you when we know more. And then you do something incredibly important. You keep your word, because trust isn’t created by having all the answers. Sometimes trust is created by being honest enough to say you don’t have them yet. Now, there’s one situation we haven’t really tackled today. What happens when the patient is not simply asking questions? What happens when they’re furious? They’re raising their voice. They’re threatening to leave your practice. They’re threatening a terrible online review. Maybe they’re even saying, “I’m going to sue you. What do you say then?

That’s what we’re going to talk about in our next episode, the angry patient, because one badly handled conversation can turn frustration into a broken relationship. But handled correctly, it may become an opportunity to rebuild trust. So make sure you subscribe to Marketing Tips for Doctors so you don’t miss it. And if you know another physician who’s ever wondered What on earth am I supposed to say when something goes wrong, send them this episode because every week we’re talking about practical ways to build stronger practices, stronger patient relationships, and greater trust, and remember, you’re one tweak away from greatness.

In this episode, Barbara discusses:

Key Takeaways:

“Silence after something goes wrong often increases mistrust, while honest, empathetic communication (“I’m sorry,” “I don’t know yet,” “We’re investigating,” “I’ll come back”) can build trust rather than automatically increasing legal risk”

Connect with Barbara Hales: 

TRANSCRIPTION:(246)

Dr. Barbara Hales 0:00:31

The most dangerous word in medicine, sorry, the word that can make a physician cringe. Sorry, not because doctors don’t care. Quite the opposite.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Marketing Tips for Doctors. Most physicians went into medicine because we care deeply about our patients, but somewhere during our training, many of us absorbed another lesson: When something goes wrong, be very careful what you say. Don’t speculate. Don’t admit anything. And whatever you do, don’t say something that could sound like you’re admitting fault, because you might get sued. But what if that isn’t the whole story?

Dr. Barbara Hales 02:00

What if the instinct to protect ourselves by becoming quiet, distant, and guarded can sometimes accomplish exactly the opposite? What if silence makes an already frightened or angry patient wonder, “What aren’t they telling me? That’s what we’re talking about today. I call it the transparency paradox. And grab your coffee because this one might make you rethink something doctors have been hearing for decades. When something goes wrong, let’s imagine a patient named Mary. Mary goes into the hospital for what she believes will be a relatively straightforward procedure. Unfortunately, she develops a serious complication. Her family is frightened. They have questions. What happened? Was this expected? Did somebody make a mistake? Is Mary going to be all right? And perhaps most importantly, why isn’t anyone talking to us?

The physician is frightened too. Maybe he doesn’t yet know exactly what happened. Maybe risk management has become involved. Maybe he’s terrified that one poorly chosen sentence will become Exhibit A in a malpractice lawsuit. So he keeps the conversation brief. He sticks to clinical facts. He avoids discussing what might have happened, and he certainly doesn’t apologize. From his perspective, he’s protecting himself. But let’s look at that interaction from Mary’s perspective. Something happened to me. Nobody will explain it. Everyone suddenly seems guarded. My doctor barely looks me in the eye. Maybe they’re hiding something, and now we have something that didn’t necessarily exist before: suspicion. That is the paradox. The physician’s silence was intended to decrease legal risk, but emotionally, that same silence may increase mistrust.

Dr. Barbara Hales 05:00

The myth. There’s a persistent myth in medicine that goes something like this: Never say you’re sorry because apologizing is admitting liability, and like many myths, there’s a tiny bit piece of truth buried inside something much more complicated. There is an enormous difference between saying “I’m very sorry this happened to you, and making a definitive statement about negligence before the facts have even been investigated. That’s why I’m not suggesting that doctors become their own attorneys. I’m not an attorney, and this episode is not legal advice. The laws governing apologies and their admissibility vary from state to state, and your hospital practice insurer and risk management team may have specific procedures you need to follow.

Dr. Barbara Hales 07:00

But here’s what I do want physicians to understand. Passion and transparency are not synonymous with recklessness, and we now have organized approaches to adverse events that are built around that distinction. One of the most important is called candor, C-A-N-D-O-R. That stands for Communication and Optimal Resolution. It was developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Instead of the old-fashioned approach, sometimes described as deny and defend, Candor emphasizes timely communication, investigation, disclosure, empathy, apology when appropriate, learning from the event, and fair resolution.

Think about how different those two philosophies feel to a patient. One says, “Protect the institution. Say as little as possible. Wait for the lawyers. The other says something happened. We’re going to find out what happened. We’re going to communicate with you. We’re going to take care of you, and we’re going to learn from this. That’s a very different experience.

Dr. Barbara Hales 09:00

Now let’s imagine another physician. We’ll call her Dr. Thompson. A medication error occurs. The wrong dose reaches her patient. Thankfully, the patient recovers. Dr. Thompson is devastated. She walks into the room and immediately says, “This was completely my fault. I made a terrible mistake. There was no excuse for it. Now, emotionally, we understand why she said it. She feels terrible, but there’s another problem here. At this point, nobody has completed the investigation. Maybe the electronic ordering system displayed the wrong dose. Maybe the pharmacy verification failed. Maybe there were two medications with nearly identical names. Maybe five different safeguards failed, or maybe Dr. Thompson really did make an error. We don’t know yet, and that’s an important distinction.

Transparency does not mean guessing. It does not mean assigning blame before the facts are known, and it does not mean making promises you may not be able to keep. In fact, one of the principals in formal disclosure programs is very simple: tell patients what you know, don’t speculate about what you don’t know.

Dr. Barbara Hales 11:00:

Imagine how much better this might sound, mr. Jones. Something happened with your medication today that we did not expect, and I’m very sorry that you’ve had to go through this. Right now, our priority is taking care of you. We’re also investigating exactly what happened. I don’t want to speculate or give you information that may turn out to be wrong, but I promise that we’ll keep you informed as we learn more. Notice what’s missing: running away, defensiveness, blaming somebody else, and speculation. But notice what’s also there: humanity.

What patients actually want. When patients have been harmed, we sometimes assume their first thought is, “How much money can I get? But that is an extraordinarily cynical way of looking at people. Patients and families often want answers. What happened? Why did it happen? What are you going to do about it? And perhaps most importantly, could this happen to somebody else? Think about that last question. A patient who has just experienced something terrible may still be thinking about the next patient. They don’t want another family sitting where they’re sitting. That tells us something important. Sometimes resolution is not only about money. It’s about acknowledgement. It’s about answers. It’s about accountability, and it’s about knowing that something will change because of what happened.

Dr. Barbara Hales 13:00

Here is the University of Michigan experience. This isn’t just a feel-good theory. One of the most frequently discussed examples came from the University. University of Michigan Health System. They developed an approach that moved away from automatically fighting every claim. When care was appropriate, they defended it. But when their investigation found that inappropriate care caused harm, they disclosed what happened and sought resolution, including compensation when appropriate. Researchers subsequently examined what happened to malpractice claims and costs, and here’s why that matters. The nightmare scenario many physicians imagine is if we start admitting that things went wrong, everybody will sue us. But that wasn’t what happened. The experience helped challenge the assumption that openness automatically creates more liability, and later research involving communication and resolution programs at other hospitals has also provided reason for optimism.

That doesn’t mean apologize and nobody will sue you. Please don’t leave this episode telling people Dr. Hale said that. That’s not what the evidence says. It means something much more interesting, transparency when it is part of a thoughtful system of communication, investigation, apology, and resolution, does not appear to create the inevitable legal disaster physicians have traditionally feared, and in some settings, liability outcomes have actually improved.

Dr. Barbara Hales 15:00

Now let’s meet our third physician, Dr. Rodriguez. Performs surgery on a patient we’ll call Robert. Robert experiences an unexpected injury. This time, instead of disappearing, Doctor Rodriguez sits down with Robert and his wife. Not standing at the door, not checking his phone, not speaking in medical jargon. He sits down. He looks at them, and he says, “Something happened during your surgery, that we need to investigate. I’m sorry that you’re going through this right now. My priority is taking care of you. We’re going to review exactly what happened, and as we learn more, we’ll share that information with you. Then he does something equally important. He comes back because disclosure is not one conversation. As more information becomes available, Robert and his wife are updated. Eventually, the investigation identifies an error. Dr. Rodriguez and the organization explain it. They apologize. They explain what should have happened, and then they explain what they’re changing so that another patient is less likely to experience the same thing.

Now, does that guarantee Robert won’t sue? Absolutely not. But compare Robert’s experience with Mary’s. Mary experienced silence. Robert experienced communication. Mary wondered what people were hiding. Robert knew an investigation was underway. Mary’s trust Deteriorated. Robert was treated like a partner who deserved answers. That difference matters.

Dr. Barbara Hales 17:00

Here’s the real transparency paradox: Doctors sometimes think if I reveal less, I’m safer. Patients may think if you’re revealing less, there must be something you’re hiding. That’s the paradox, and there’s another side to it. Transparency does not mean telling patients everything you think might have happened. It means being honest about what you know, honest about what you don’t know and committed to finding the answers-that’s a very different thing. You can say, “I don’t know yet. Those may actually be four of the most trustworthy words in medicine, provided you followed them with, “But I’m going to find out what about apology laws. Now we have to talk about something called apology laws. Many states have enacted laws that provide some protection for certain statements physicians make after adverse events, but. And this is a big but; they’re not all the same. Some laws may protect expressions of sympathy, such as “I’m sorry you’re going through this. That doesn’t necessarily mean they protect a statement such as “I made the mistake that caused this.

The specifics vary by jurisdiction, so please don’t listen to this podcast and decide that tomorrow you’re going to create your own disclosure policy. Know your state’s law, know your organization’s policy, know what your malpractice carrier recommends and involve risk management when appropriate, but don’t confuse being legally thoughtful with being emotionally absent. Those are two very different things.

Dr. Barbara Hales 19:00

What should a physician actually say? So let’s make this practical. Something unexpected has happened. You’re standing outside the patient’s room. Your stomach is in knots. What do you do? First, take care of the patient’s immediate medical needs. Obviously, then get the appropriate people involved according to your organization’s procedures. But when you speak with the patient, remember four things. Number one, acknowledge what happened. Don’t make the patient drag information out of you. Two, express empathy. I’m sorry you’re going through this. Human beings need to hear that another human being recognizes their suffering. Number three, don’t speculate. If you don’t know why something happened, say so. I don’t know yet is better than giving an explanation that turns out to be wrong, or tell them what happens next. We’re investigating this. We’ll keep you informed. Here’s what we’re doing for you now, and then do what you said you were going to do, because transparency without follow through is not transparency; it’s public relations.

Dr. Barbara Hales 20:00

So you may ask, why does this belong on a marketing podcast? You may be wondering, Barbara, this is marketing tips for doctors. Why are we talking about medical errors and malpractice, because marketing is not just advertising. Marketing is reputation. Marketing is relationships. Marketing is what your patients say about you when you’re not in the room, and above all, marketing is trust. Your reputation is not built only when everything goes beautifully. Sometimes your reputation is built during the worst moments of a patient’s experience. Any doctor can appear caring when the treatment works perfectly and the patient is delighted. The real test of a relationship comes when something has not gone according to plan. Do you disappear? Do you become defensive? Do you blame the nurse, the hospital, the pharmacy, or the computer? Or do you sit down, look your patient in the eye and say, “I’m here. I’m sorry this happened. Here’s what we know. Here’s what we don’t know yet, and here’s what we’re going to do next. That patient may never forget that conversation.

Dr. Barbara Hales 21:00

And doctors are human too. There’s another person in this story whom we haven’t talked much about: the physician. When something goes wrong, doctors can be devastated. We replay the case in our heads. What did I miss? What could I have done differently? Was this my fault? We may lose sleep. We may question our competence, and at the same time, we’re expected to walk into the next patient’s room and function as though nothing happened. That’s one reason I think silence can be so damaging on both sides. The patient is isolated, and the doctor is isolated. Interestingly, programs such as Candor don’t focus only on the patient and family. They also recognize the importance of supporting the clinicians and staff involved in adverse events, because you can believe in accountability and still have comparative. For the people involved, those aren’t opposites.

So, does saying sorry prevent lawsuits? Here’s my answer: not necessarily. And anyone who promises you that it does is oversimplifying a very complicated issue, some patients will sue regardless of how compassionate the doctor is. Some events involve serious negligence. Some injuries are catastrophic. Some families will need compensation, and sometimes litigation will be unavoidable, but that’s not the question we should be asking. The better question is, does treating an injured patient with honesty, empathy, communication, and respect automatically increase our legal risk? The evidence from well-designed communication and resolution programs tells us that the answer is not the simple yes that generations of physicians have feared, and that matters because fear has shaped the way medicine communicates after something goes wrong. Maybe it’s time we questioned that fear.

The one thing I want you to remember, if you remember nothing else from today’s episode, remember this: sometimes the words doctors are most afraid to say are the very words patients most need to hear. I’m sorry. I don’t know yet. We’re investigating. I’ll come back. We’ll tell you what we learned, and we’ll work to make sure this does not happen again. Those are not necessarily words of weakness. They can be words of integrity, and in medicine, integrity is one of the most powerful forms of trust we have. So the next time somebody tells you never apologize, you’ll get sued. Remember the transparency paradox. Sometimes what feels like protection can create distance, and what feels like vulnerability can begin rebuilding trust. If today’s episode made you rethink something you’ve been taught about medicine, share it with another physician, because every week on Marketing Tips for Doctors, we talk about practical ways to build stronger practices, stronger relationships, and greater trust with the patients we serve, but that leaves us with a very important question: If silence is not the answer, what exactly should you say when something goes wrong. That’s what we’re going to tackle in the next episode, including the words I would use and the words I would never use. So make sure you’re subscribed because you don’t want to miss that conversation. Till next time.

0:23:20 Narrator: Thanks for listening to Marketing Tips for Doctors. If you like the podcast, please subscribe, rate, and review. Press the subscribe button so you never miss an episode, and tell your friends about the show. Join us on marketingtipsfordoctors.com for replays and more resources to help grow your practice, strengthen your brand, and dominate your field. Remember, you are one tweet from greatness.

In this episode, Barbara discusses:

Key Takeaways:

“AI’s real power in medicine isn’t replacing physicians—it’s reclaiming the invisible hours lost to documentation and administration so doctors can be fully present with their patients and in their own lives again.”

Connect with Barbara Hales: 

TRANSCRIPTION (245)

Chapter 1 — Why Physicians Need Their Time Back

Dr. Barbara Hales 00:04

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Marketing Tips for Doctors.

When was the last time you finished seeing your last patient, and you were actually finished for the day? Not finished seeing patients… finished. No charts waiting for you. No patient portal messages. No paperwork you promised yourself you’d finished after dinner. No laptop sitting on the kitchen counter staring at you while your family is doing something without you.

If you’re laughing right now, I understand because for many physicians, the workday doesn’t end when the office closes; it just changes location. You go home, have dinner, maybe spend some time with your family, and then out comes the laptop, and somewhere along the way, something happened to medicine. We became doctors because we wanted to take care of people. We did not go to medical school because we had a burning desire to become world-class data entry specialists. We didn’t dream about answering portal messages. We didn’t fantasize about prior authorizations, and I’m fairly certain that when you wrote your medical school application essay, you didn’t say, “My lifelong ambition is to spend more evenings completing documentation, yet here we are, and that is why I want to talk about artificial intelligence today. Not because AI is fashionable, not because everybody is talking about ChatGPT, and certainly not because I think technology should replace physicians. Quite the opposite.

I think we need to ask a completely different question: Can technology give physicians enough time back that we can actually be physicians again? Apparently, doctors are beginning to think the answer may be yes. According to the American Medical Association’s 2026 Physician Survey on Augmented Intelligence, 81% of physicians now report using AI professionally. That’s more than double the percentage in 2023. Think about that. In only a few years, AI went from something many doctors viewed with suspicion to something being used in medical practices every day, and here’s another number that really caught my attention: 70% of physicians surveyed by the AMA said they see AI as a tool that can automate tasks contributing to work-related burnout.

So today, I’m going to show you seven practical ways physicians can use AI to get some of their time back. But before we get to those seven, I want to talk about what we’re really trying to solve, because the problem is not technology. The problem is time. The invisible second shift. Picture a physician we’ll call Dr. Sarah. Sarah has a busy primary care practice. Her last patient leaves at 515. She gets home around Her husband has dinner waiting. Her daughter sits at the table, telling everyone about something that happened at school. Sarah is listening, sort of, because part of her brain is thinking about the unfinished charts. She knows there are 11 of them, so she eats dinner. She asks her daughter a few questions. She helps clear the table. And then she says the sentence that physician families know all too well.

I just have to finish a few charts. She opens the laptop. 8 o’clock becomes nine. Nine becomes 10. Her daughter goes to bed. Sarah finally closes the computer at 1037, and here’s the sad part: nothing particularly unusual happened that day. There wasn’t an emergency. Nobody crashed. There wasn’t a complicated admission. It was simply Tuesday. That story is a composite, but I’ll bet many physicians listening recognize themselves in it. This is what I call the invisible second shift of medicine, and this is precisely where I believe physicians should begin thinking about AI, not with robots, not with futuristic diagnostic machines. Start with what I do every day that doesn’t actually require me to be a physician, because that is where your time is hiding.

Let’s begin with the obvious one: documentation. AI-powered ambient scribes can listen to the physician-patient conversation with appropriate systems, safeguards, and consent procedures, and generate a draft clinical note. You review it, you correct it, you approve it. The physician remains responsible, but you’re no longer starting with a blank page. And this isn’t just theoretical. In one medical group study involving 79 providers and more than 25,000 AI-generated notes across 23 specialties, high users of an ambient AI scribe had a 21% decrease in time spent on notes per day.

Chapter 2 — AI for Documentation, Inbox, and Patient Education

Dr. Barbara Hales  07:26

Even more interesting to me was what happened after work. Before the pilot, about 32% of participating providers reported spending eight or more hours per week documenting outside clinic hours during AI use, which dropped to about 8%. Think about it: 32% to 8%. That’s not just an efficiency statistic. That’s dinner. That’s exercise. That’s reading a book. That’s going to your child’s soccer game. That’s sitting on the couch and doing absolutely nothing and not feeling guilty about it-that is life.

Imagine Sarah again. Only now her practice introduces a properly vetted ambient AI documentation system. At first, she’s skeptical. She checks every note carefully, and she should, but gradually something changes. Instead of writing the entire note after the visit, she reviews and corrects a draft. One evening, she gets home. She puts her purse down. She walks into the kitchen, and her daughter looks at her and says, “Mom, where’s your computer? Sarah says, “In my bag. Her daughter looks confused. “Aren’t you going to take it out? And Sarah says, “Nope, I’m done. Now that’s an illustrative story, but that is the outcome we’re talking about. We’re not trying to make physicians type faster. We’re trying to make it possible for physicians to stop typing. Next, the inbox. Ah, yes, the inbox-the place where a message that begins with “Quick question, doctor, occasionally contains 14 questions, three attachments, and a medical History going back to 1987.

AI can help draft responses to routine patient communications. Notice the word I used: draft, not diagnose, not independently prescribe, not send medical advice without physician review. Draft. You provide the judgment. AI provides the first pass. The 2026 AMA survey found physicians are already using AI to generate draft responses to patient portal messages; think about the difference between writing 20 responses from scratch and reviewing 20 reasonable drafts. Even saving two or three minutes per message adds up, and there’s another benefit: AI can help you turn a rushed answer into a clear, patient-friendly explanation. You still decide what is medically appropriate, but AI can help you communicate it more efficiently.

AI use number three: patient education. Here’s an area I think is enormously underused. How many times have you explained the same thing? What does pre-diabetes mean? Why do I need this medication? What should I expect after this procedure? What does this lab result mean? Why do I need to come back in six months? You explain it Monday, then Tuesday, then Wednesday, and Thursday morning. You’re explaining it again. What if you created a physician-approved library of patient education materials? AI can help you take your explanation and turn it into a one-page handout, a frequently asked questions sheet, a patient-friendly email, a short video script, or instructions written at a more accessible reading level. You review it for accuracy. Then you have something reusable. This is where AI becomes more than a time-saving tool; it becomes a way to multiply a physician’s knowledge without multiplying their hours.

Doctor using AI versus doctors who aren’t. Now let’s compare two physicians. Same specialty, same number of physicians, same number of patients, same clinical ability. Doctor A is not using AI. Every note begins from scratch. Every patient handout is created manually, or the staff searches for one. Every portal response is typed individually. Every complicated article takes 20 minutes to read before Doctor A determines whether it matters. Every piece of administrative work begins with a blank page; Doctor B uses AI selectively, and I want to emphasize selectively. AI drafts the note. Doctor B reviews it. AI drafts the portal response. Doctor B corrects and approves it. AI turns the doctor’s explanation into patient education. Doctor B verifies it. AI summarizes a long research article. Doctor B goes to the source before making a clinical decision. Doctor B is not surrendering a medical judgment. Doctor B is eliminating unnecessary friction. That distinction matters because the physician who uses AI appropriately isn’t necessarily practicing medicine faster; they’re spending less time on everything surrounding medicine, and the difference compounds. 10 minutes here, 15. Minutes there, 20 minutes somewhere else. Pretty soon, we’re not talking about minutes anymore. We’re talking about hours. AI used number four, keeping up with medical literature. Here’s another struggle physicians know very well: the literature never stops. Studies, guidelines, drug updates, safety alerts, consensus statements, journal articles. Nobody can read everything.

Chapter 3 — AI as a Research Assistant, Not a Doctor

Dr. Barbara Hales 15:40

The AMA’s 2026 survey actually found that summarizing medical research and standards of care was the most commonly reported physician use of AI among the specific use cases measured. That tells us something important. Doctors aren’t only looking for help with paperwork; they’re using AI to help manage information overload. Suppose there are six recent papers on a subject relevant to your specialty.

Instead of reading every word of every paper, AI can help you identify the research questions, study size, primary outcomes, where the findings agreed, and where they conflicted. What limitations should you pay attention to? Then, and this is critical, you go back to the original evidence when the information will affect patient care. AI becomes the map. It does not become the destination, and that brings us to something every physician listening needs to hear. AI is an assistant, not the doctor. AI can be wrong; it can misunderstand context. It can omit information. It can confidently produce something that sounds wonderful and is completely incorrect. And physicians know something that technology does not possess: clinical judgment.

We know the difference between the textbook patient and the human being sitting in front of us. We notice hesitation. We notice fear. We notice when someone says, “I’m fine, while everything about them tells us they’re not fine. Medicine is not simply information. Medicine is interpretation. Medicine is judgment. Medicine is trust. So the goal is not how much medicine can I turn over to AI. The better question is, how much non-physician work can I take away from the physician? That is a very different conversation. In part two, I’m going to show you three more ways to use AI, including one that can help you create weeks of marketing content from something you’re already doing every single day, and I’ll tell you another story. This one is about a doctor who realizes the greatest thing AI gave him wasn’t efficiency. It was something much more valuable. It gave him back a Saturday.

So here are seven ways doctors can use AI to get their time back. What would you do with the hours AI gave back? At the end of part one, I told you about a doctor who got something unexpected from AI-a Saturday. Let me explain. The Saturday morning that came back, we’ll call him Dr. Michael again. This is a composite story based on the kinds of workflow problems physicians experience. Michael owns a small specialty practice, and every Saturday morning he has a routine: coffee, laptop, kitchen table. He tells some. He tells himself he’ll work for an hour. It’s almost never an hour. Charts to finish, letters to dictate, patient messages, administrative correspondence, and things he didn’t get to during the week. His wife has learned not to ask when he’ll be finished. One Saturday, after his practice has begun using AI to help with documentation and routine administrative drafting, Michael wakes up. He makes coffee. He walks toward the kitchen table, and there’s no laptop sitting there. He had finished his work Friday. His wife says, “Do you want to go get breakfast? And for the first time in longer than he can remember, he does not say, “Maybe later. He says, “Sure. Now you could look at that and say, “AI saved him three hours. I don’t think that’s what happened. AI gave him back Saturday morning with his wife.

We have to stop measuring physician efficiency only in minutes. We need to start measuring it in life. AI used number five insurance correspondence and administrative drafting. Now let’s talk about one of everyone’s favorite subjects: insurance. I can practically hear you groaning. Prior authorizations, appeal letters, medical necessity letters, supporting documentation, repetitive administrative correspondence. This is precisely the kind of structured, repetitive work where AI can assist. A physician or staff member can provide the relevant, privacy-safe information in an approved system and have AI help draft a first version. Then someone qualified reviews it. This isn’t about fabricating an argument. It isn’t about inserting facts that aren’t in the chart.

Chapter 4 — Administrative Work, Practice Operations, and Content

Dr. Barbara Hales 22:44

It is about organizing legitimate clinical information into the format needed for the task, and this matters because physicians did not train for all those years so that their most limited resource, their time, could be consumed fighting with forums; AI may not make the insurance company say yes. Wouldn’t that be nice? But it may reduce the amount of physician time required to ask the question.

AI use number six: practical operations. Here’s one physicians often overlook: AI doesn’t have to touch clinical medicine to be useful. Look around your practice. How many repetitive processes exist? Staff training, frequently asked questions, office policies, meeting summaries, job descriptions, phone scripts, patient reminders, internal checklists, responses to online reviews, ideas for improving scheduling, drafting standard operating procedures. You don’t need a medical AI system to ask, “Help me turn this messy process into a checklist.

You don’t need AI making clinical decisions to say,

“Here are the five questions patients ask my receptionist every day. Help me draft clear answers. And here’s one I particularly like. At the end of your staff meeting, take your approved, non-sensitive meeting notes and ask AI to organize them into: what did we decide? Who is responsible? What’s the deadline? What needs follow-up? Suddenly, a meeting produces action instead of another meeting. Now we’re talking. AI use number seven. Mark. And patient communication. This one is particularly close to my heart. Doctors tell me, Barbara, I know I should create content. I just don’t have time, and I understand. But here’s what I want you to realize: you are already creating content all day long; you’re just not capturing it. Every patient question is potential educational content. Think about today: how many questions did patients ask you? Should I be worried about this? Is this hereditary? When should I get screened? Is there anything I can do to prevent this? What’s the difference between these two treatments?

Those questions can become a short video, a blog post, a patient email, a special media post, a podcast topic, or an FAQ on your website-you provide the expertise. AI helps you repurpose it. For example, you might say, “Patients ask me this question constantly. Here is the explanation I usually give them. Then dictate your explanation and ask AI. Turn this into a 62nd video script written in my conversational style. Then give me three possible titles. Then turn the same information into a patient email. Then create five short social posts from it.  That is where AI can become an extraordinary multiplier for a small medical practice, not because AI becomes the physician’s voice, but because it helps the physician’s real voice travel further.

Here’s a story.

The patient who finally felt heard. Let me give you one last story. We’ll call the physician Dr. Patel. Dr. Patel has always been the kind of doctor who looks directly at patients when they are speaking. At least she used to be. Then came increasingly complicated documentation requirements, and gradually she found herself doing what so many physicians do: patient talking, doctor typing, patient talking, doctor clicking, patient asking something important, doctor saying, “Give me one second. While finishing a field on the screen, then her practice begins using an ambient documentation tool. She’s still responsible for the note. She still reviews it, but during the encounter, something changes. She turns away from the computer. She looks at her patient, an older woman who has been seeing her for years, and suddenly stops in the middle of the conversation.

Doctor Patel asks, “Is there something wrong? The patient smiles and says, “No, I was just thinking how nice it is to see your face again. That story is illustrative, but think about what it represents. We keep talking about AI as though technology will make medicine less human. Used badly, perhaps it could, but what if we use it to do exactly the opposite? What if technology handles more of the machinery of medicine, so physicians have more time for the humanity of medicine? That’s the opportunity that interests me. Now let’s turn to our two physicians, Doctor A and Doctor B. Remember, they started in essentially the same place, same specialty, same patient volume, same clinical competence. Doctor A continues doing everything manually. Doctor B gradually delegates appropriate repetitive work to carefully selected AI tools, not clinical judgment work.

Chapter 5 — Reclaiming Time, Using AI Safely, and Staying Human

Dr. Barbara Hales 29:57

Doctor B saves a few minutes. Documenting, a few minutes on correspondence, a few minutes researching, a few minutes creating patient materials, a few minutes handling administrative tasks. Let’s be conservative and imagine that adds up to only 30 minutes a day, five days a week. That’s two and a half hours, over roughly 48 working weeks. That’s 120 hours a year. Think of that-a 120 hours, three full 40-hour work weeks, and that’s from saving only 30 minutes per day.

If the physician saves an hour, now we’re talking about approximately 240 hours, six work weeks. So ask yourself: What would you do with six weeks of your life? Would you see more patients? Would you leave the office earlier? Would you exercise? Would you finally take the vacation you’ve postponed? Would you have dinner with your family without your laptop? Would you sit with a patient for an extra three minutes instead of watching the clock? Would you grow your practice? Would you create another revenue stream? Would you simply sleep? There isn’t a correct answer. The point is, you get to decide.

Start small. If you are listening to this and thinking, Barbara, this sounds great, but I don’t even know where to begin. Don’t begin with seven things. Begin with one. Tomorrow, notice the task that makes you say, “I can’t believe I’m wasting my time doing this again. Write it down. That’s your candidate. Then ask, “Could AI draft this? Could AI summarize this? Could AI organize this? Could AI turn this into a template? Could AI help my staff do this without involving me every single time?

You don’t need to transform your entire practice this month. Choose one repetitive task. Get comfortable. Measure whether it actually saves time. Then choose another. That’s how change becomes sustainable. A word about safety. Because we’re physicians, I need to emphasize something very important: convenience does not outrank confidentiality. Don’t copy protected patient information into a public consumer AI tool. Your practice needs to evaluate privacy, security, HIPAA requirements, vendor agreements, accuracy, workflow integration, and appropriate human oversight, and every clinically relevant AI-generated output needs appropriate professional review.

AI can generate extraordinarily convincing errors. So remember this: delegate the task, never delegate the judgment. That sentence may be the most important thing I say in this entire episode. If today’s episode made you look at your workday differently, do two things. First, choose one task this week that AI might be able to take partially off your plate. Don’t try to revolutionize your entire practice. Just reclaim 10 minutes, and second, subscribe to Marketing Tips for Doctors and share this episode with another physician who is still taking the laptop home every night, because every week on Marketing Tips for Doctors we talk about practical ways to build a stronger, more profitable medical practice without sacrificing the reason you became a physician in the first place. And remember, you’re one tweak away from greatness.

AI won’t solve everything that’s wrong with medicine. It won’t eliminate insurance headaches. It won’t fix reimbursement overnight. It won’t replace the judgment that comes from years of training and experience. And I don’t want it to. What I want AI to replace is something very different: the unnecessary hour at the computer, the repetitive letter, the blank page, the administrative task that followed you home, the Saturday morning you were supposed to spend with someone you love, because perhaps the most exciting promise of artificial intelligence in medicine is not artificial intelligence at all.

Perhaps it’s giving physicians the time to be More human, and if technology can help us do that, then I think it’s worth paying attention to. I’m Dr. Barbara Hales. Thank you for joining me on Marketing Tips for Doctors.

Til next time.

In this episode, Barbara discusses:

Key Takeaways:

TRANSCRIPT (244)

Introduction: The Next Five Video Marketing Mistakes

Dr. Barbara Hales 0:02

Mistake #6: Forgetting That Many People Never Hear a Word You Say

Mistake number six: forgetting that many people never hear a word you say. This may be the most overlooked mistake in video marketing. Many people watch videos with the sound turned off. Think about your own habits. You’re sitting in a waiting room. You’re standing in line at the grocery store. You’re waiting to board an airplane. You don’t want to disturb the people around you, so you scroll silently. Now imagine a physician appears on your screen. They are obviously talking, but there are no captions, no headline, no text. Nothing tells you why you should stop. What happens? You keep scrolling, not because the doctor wasn’t knowledgeable, not because the information was not valuable. You simply had no idea what the video was about. Now imagine that same video begins with large text that says, “Three signs your blood pressure may be too high, or, “The biggest mistake patients make after knee replacement. Suddenly, you know exactly why you should stay. Captions don’t simply help people hear you; they help people understand you before they ever turn the sound on. Think of on-screen text as the title on the cover of a book. Without the title, many people never bother opening the book.

Mistake #7: Trying to Teach Everything in One Video

Mistake number seven: trying to teach everything in one video. Here’s another mistake I see all the time. Doctors try to explain everything. We want patients to understand the whole picture. That’s wonderful inside the exam room. It’s not wonderful in a 92nd video. I remember working with a physician who wanted to make a video about high blood pressure. He covered how blood pressure works, every medication, diet, exercise, complications, kidney disease, stroke, heart attacks, everything. It was an outstanding lecture. It was also far too much for one video. Now imagine a different approach. One video answers one question: Does high blood pressure have symptoms? Another asks: Why do I need medication if I feel fine? Another: Three foods that quietly raise blood pressure. Instead of one overwhelming lecture, you’ve created an entire video library. Patients can watch exactly what they need, and every video becomes another opportunity for someone to discover you.

Mistake #8: Thinking You Need Expensive Equipment

Mistake number eight: thinking you need expensive equipment. Let me save you some money. You probably don’t need another camera. You probably don’t need another microphone. You probably don’t need another light. You definitely don’t need to wait until everything is perfect. The smartphone in your pocket can produce remarkable videos today. Better equipment will help eventually, but better communication will help far more. People forgive average video quality; they rarely forgive boring content. Focus on helping people. The technology can improve later.

Mistake #9: Quitting Before the Results Show Up

Mistake number nine: quitting before the results show up. Here’s one of the biggest reasons physicians fail with video: they stop. They record three videos, maybe five. They don’t go viral. They don’t receive hundreds of comments, so they conclude video marketing doesn’t work. Imagine planting a tree. Would you dig it up after one week to see if the roots were growing? Of course not. Trust grows exactly the same way. One helpful video, then another, then another. Months later, patients begin saying, “I’ve been watching your videos. Those are some of the most rewarding words you’ll ever hear, because by then the relationship has already begun.

Mistake #10: Never Telling People What to Do Next

Mistake number 10: never telling people what to do next. You’ve educated someone. You’ve answered their question. They’ve watched until the end. Now what? Too many physicians simply stop talking. Don’t make people guess. Invite them. If you’d like more practical medical advice, subscribe. To learn more, visit my website. If this helped you, share it with someone you care about. If you’re looking for a physician, schedule an appointment. Every good conversation has a next step. Your videos should too.

Lesson: Focus on Communication, Not Technology

Here’s something I learned recently. I spent far too much time trying to make a better editor. Then I realized that’s not my job. My job is to communicate.

Dr. Barbara Hales 7:47

This Week’s Challenge: Record One Helpful Video

This week’s challenge: Record one video, answer one patient question, and keep it under two minutes. Don’t aim for perfection. Aim for helpful. Press, publish. Then next week, do it again.

The Real Purpose of Video Marketing

Video marketing isn’t really about cameras. It isn’t about software. It isn’t about algorithms. It’s about becoming the physician people already know and trust before they ever walk through your door.

Closing: Communicate With Purpose

Thank you so much for spending part of your day with me. If you enjoyed today’s episode, I’d really appreciate it if you’d subscribe to Marketing Tips for doctors. Every week, I share practical strategies to help physicians attract better patients, build stronger practices, and enjoy medicine again. Until next time, keep communicating with purpose, because every question you answered today may change someone’s tomorrow.

In this episode, Barbara discusses: 

Key Takeaways: 

“Video works for physicians not because it’s perfectly produced, but because it quickly, simply, and visually answers the patient’s real questions in a way that feels personal, trustworthy, and focused on them.” 

Connect with Barbara Hales: 

TRANSCRIPTION (243)

Chapter 1: Why Video Matters for Physicians 

[0:00:02 – Dr. Barbara Hales] Welcome to another episode of Marketing Tips for Doctors. I’m your host, Dr. Barbara Hales. Today we are going to be discussing something that has become one of the most powerful marketing tools available to physicians: Video, but ask yourself why your medical videos aren’t working. Today, we’ll discuss the first five mistakes most physicians make. 

[0:00:38 – Dr. Barbara Hales] Before you think, I don’t have professional cameras. I don’t know how to edit. I don’t have enough time, or I hate seeing myself on camera. I want to tell you a little story, because over the last few weeks, I’ve been learning something completely new, not medicine, not practice management, not marketing strategy. I’ve been learning how to create short-form videos, and let me tell you, it has been humbling. I honestly thought the difficult part would be coming up with ideas. It wasn’t. The difficult part was editing. One afternoon, I spent hours trying to edit what should have been a very simple product video. Hours. I watched tutorials. I clicked the wrong buttons. 

[0:01:45 – Dr. Barbara Hales] I undid things I had just done. At one point, I honestly wondered if I was ever going to finish. Then I had a realization: I don’t need to become a professional video editor. I don’t need to look like it was made by a professional. I need to become a better communicator. 

[0:02:14 – Dr. Barbara Hales] Those are two completely different skills. Technology can help me edit. Only I can communicate with authenticity, and I realize something else. If I felt overwhelmed, imagine how many positions feel exactly the same way. So, if you’ve been putting off video because it seems complicated. This episode is for you. Why now? Let’s start with a simple question: Why should physicians even bother making videos? Because that’s where your future patients are. Years ago, people searched Google. Today, they search Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, even LinkedIn. 

[0:03:15 – Dr. Barbara Hales] Patients don’t just want information anymore; they want connection. They want to know what kind of doctor you are. Will you explain things clearly? Will you listen? Will you make them feel comfortable? Video answers all of those questions before they ever schedule an appointment. Here’s another reason: you already have an unlimited supply of content. Every single day, patients ask you questions-questions you’ve answered hundreds of times, questions that seem routine to you-but those same questions are brand new to someone hearing the answer for the first time. 

[0:04:06 – Dr. Barbara Hales] Should I worry about this symptom? Why do I need this medication? How long will recovery take? Can I exercise after surgery? What’s normal? What isn’t? Those aren’t just questions. Those are videos. Seasonal illnesses, flu season, travel medicine, heat exhaustion, spring allergies, sports physicals, Heart Month, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Diabetes Awareness Month. The ideas are endless, which brings me to what I think may be the most important sentence in today’s episode. Every question you answer in the exam room today. Is probably being typed into Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok by hundreds, if not 1000s, of people tonight. Then think about it. 

[0:05:16 – Dr. Barbara Hales] Those questions, the ones that have become second nature to you, they’re exactly what people are searching for. They’re looking for answers. They’re looking for reassurance, and perhaps most importantly, they’re looking for someone they can trust. 

Chapter 2: Mistake 1 – Waiting for Perfection 

[0:05:35 – Dr. Barbara Hales] If you’re the physician consistently providing those answers, you’re not just creating videos; you are building relationships before the first appointment ever happens. Now, let’s talk about the first five mistakes I see physicians make with video marketing. Mistake one: waiting for perfection. Let’s start with the biggest mistake of all: waiting until everything is perfect. I understand why physicians do this. 

[0:06:15 – Dr. Barbara Hales] We’ve trained to strive for precision. In medicine, details matter, accuracy matters, getting it right matters. So naturally, we carry the same mindset into marketing. We think, I’ll record a video after I buy a better camera. I’ll start once my office is renovated. I’ll wait until I learn how to edit. I’ll do it when I lose a few pounds. I’ll do it when I feel more comfortable on camera. 

[0:06:52 – Dr. Barbara Hales] Can I tell you something? Your future patients aren’t waiting for perfection. They’re waiting for someone who can answer their questions. Patients don’t expect Hollywood. They expect honesty. They expect clarity. They expect someone who feels genuine. Ironically, sometimes the videos that perform the best are the ones that feel the least polished. Why? Because they feel real. People connect with people, not perfection. 

[0:07:37 – Dr. Barbara Hales] If you keep waiting until every detail is perfect, you’ll still be waiting a year from now. Instead, record one helpful video, learn from it. Record another. Your first video isn’t supposed to be your best video. It’s simply supposed to be your first. Mistake two: talking like you’re giving a medical lecture. Once physicians finally press record, many make the same mistake. They forget who they’re talking to. You aren’t speaking to your colleagues. You’re speaking to Patients; patients don’t want to feel like they’re sitting through grand rounds. They want someone who can explain complicated information in a way that’s reassuring and easy to understand. 

Chapter 3: Mistakes 2 & 3 – Overly Technical and Too Slow to the Point 

[0:08:36 – Dr. Barbara Hales] One of my favorite communication tests is this: Could a high school student understand what you’re saying? If the answer is yes, you’re probably communicating well. Simple doesn’t mean you’re dumbing things down. Simple means you’re making knowledge accessible, and that’s one of the greatest gifts a physician can offer. Mistake three: taking too long to get to the point. You know this is something that we’ve all done at one point or another. 

[0:09:12 – Dr. Barbara Hales] Now let’s talk about attention. Years ago, people would patiently watch an introduction. Not anymore. Today you’re competing with 1000s of videos. If your opening doesn’t answer one question, why should I keep watching? People simply scroll instead of beginning with “Hello everyone, I’m Dr. Smith. 

[0:09:40 – Dr. Barbara Hales] Try beginning with three reasons your blood pressure medication may not be enough, or the biggest mistake I see after knee replacement surgery, or if you wake up with headaches every morning, don’t ignore the. Lead with the problem. Curiosity is one of the most powerful marketing tools you’ll ever use. Mistake number four: making the video about you instead of the patient. 

Chapter 4: Mistake 4 – Making the Video About You, Not the Patient 

[0:10:20 – Dr. Barbara Hales] Here’s another trap physicians fall into. They spend the first minute talking about themselves, where they trained, how many years they practiced, their credentials. Now, don’t misunderstand me. Credentials matter, but not in the first 30 seconds. Patients are thinking about one thing: themselves, their symptoms, their concerns, their questions. Meet them where they are, instead of saying, “I’ve been practicing medicine for 25 years. Try saying, “Here’s something every patient should know before. See the difference. The first sentence is about you. 

[0:11:13 – Dr. Barbara Hales] The second sentence is about them, and that’s where trust begins. Let me tell you something I’ve observed over the years. I’ve worked with physicians who had nearly identical credentials, excellent schools, board certifications, years of experience. Yet one physician always seemed to have a waiting room full of new patients, while another struggled. 

[0:11:44 – Dr. Barbara Hales] Why? Because patients don’t choose the doctor with the longest resume; they choose the doctor they feel they already know. Video creates familiarity. It lets patients experience your personality, your communication style, your compassion before they ever walk into your office. By the time they arrive for that first appointment, it doesn’t feel like they’re meeting a stranger. It feels like they’re meeting someone they’ve already come to trust-that’s the real power of video. It isn’t views. It isn’t likes. It isn’t algorithms. It’s trust. 

Chapter 5: Mistake 5 – Not Using Visuals and Overcomplicating Production 

[0:12:34 – Dr. Barbara Hales] Now, let’s talk about something I learned myself over the last few weeks. Video isn’t just about talking; it’s about showing. As physicians, we’re comfortable explaining things, but sometimes a simple visual explains more than a five-minute conversation. If you’re talking about knee pain, show a model of the knee. If you’re discussing skin cancer, show videos or diagrams when appropriate. If you’re explaining how to use an inhaler, you guessed it. Demonstrate it. 

[0:13:18 – Dr. Barbara Hales] People remember what they see, not just what they hear. I’ll give you a personal example. Recently, I was creating a short product video. The first version, honestly, it wasn’t very good. I simply filmed the product and started talking. It looked flat, so I stopped and asked myself, “How can I tell the story before I even say a word? The product happened to contain coconut, lime, and verbena. Instead of just placing the bottle on a table, I got a coconut. 

[0:14:01 – Dr. Barbara Hales] I cut it in half so you could see the inside. I placed fresh limes around the bottle. I put the bottle on a large natural rack, and I positioned everything beside a small palm tree. Suddenly, the video had a completely different feeling. Before I ever opened my mouth, the viewer already understood the product’s tropical theme. That experience reminded me of something we sometimes forget: video is visual. Every image should reinforce your message. 

[0:14:45 – Dr. Barbara Hales] Now, here’s the funny part. I actually drove around my neighborhood looking for the perfect little palm tree. After all that searching, I came home, walked into my backyard, and realized I. I already had the perfect palm tree growing there. 

[0:15:03 – Dr. Barbara Hales] Sometimes marketing is like that. We spend so much time looking for complicated solutions that we overlook the resources we already have. The same thing happens in medicine. Physicians often think they need expensive cameras, a professional studio, or a production company. 

[0:15:26 – Dr. Barbara Hales] Most of the time, what they already have is enough. One of these: a smartphone, good lighting, knowledge that helps people, and the willingness to press record-that’s where great video marketing begins. Not with expensive equipment, but with thoughtful communication. 

[0:15:51 – Dr. Barbara Hales] So today we’ve covered the first five mistakes that keep physicians from creating videos that connect with patients. Next week, we’re going to explore five more mistakes that can quietly destroy even a great video. We’ll talk about captions, why many viewers never hear a word you say, how to keep people from scrolling away, and the simple changes that can dramatically increase engagement. I think you’ll be surprised by how much difference those small details can make. So for this week, I’d like you to find one video you’d like to make and put it in the comments below. Okay, see you next week.