Mirla Avila, MD, explains how honest patient feedback about treatment satisfaction and care experiences strengthens the doctor-patient partnership.
Transcript
To me, it’s very important for patients to be honest. If a patient is not satisfied with their medication, for example, when they’re not verbalizing that to you, what’s going to happen is that they’re not going to be compliant. So their health is the one that is going to pay a toll.
If they’re not satisfied with the way their healthcare is going — either because they’re not satisfied with something from my office — I want to know. So I want to make sure that I can correct that.
And it’s important for patients to know that besides our interaction as a doctor and patient — there are a lot of things that go behind the scenes from an office perspective, for example, the scheduling, the MRI scheduling, the reminders of visits, and all that goes behind the scenes of the doctor.
So for me, it’s very important to know if we’re doing a good job — because if we’re not, there’s always room for improvement. So I think that’s important.
But the most important of all is that the patient needs to be satisfied with the approach that he or she is receiving in her care, as well as the medication, because that is what’s going to dictate compliance.
