Any time you work in a service oriented business, you can be sure you will run into at least a few people who are less than happy with you from time to time. We all know you can’t please all the people all the time. So here we sat down with Dr. Popp to talk about a time he made a patient mad.
A husband and wife went to Dr. Popp to talk with him about the wife getting breast implants. But it wasn’t long before Dr. Popp noticed that the husband was doing all of the talking. “And that bothered me a great deal because with any procedure, it’s about the person who is having the procedure, not the friend, spouse, girlfriend or boyfriend,” he said.
A Closer Look
At the office, patients fill out a form with their medical history where they indicate with a signature that what they have reported is done so by them and is true to the best of their knowledge. As Dr. Popp was looking at the wife’s form, he noticed that something seemed off with her signature at the bottom of the sheet.
“I look at the lady and I asked her if that was her signature and she said ‘no’ and the husband chimes in ‘that’s mine.’ And I tell him he can’t do that unless he had a power of attorney for her which he said he did not. Then he told me he had been doing it at all the other doctor’s offices and they didn’t have a problem with it,” explained Dr. Popp. “Well, I did.”
It turns out the potential patient hadn’t filled out any of the information. He had done it all for her. Then the husband started to get mad.
“He called me a pompous ass. Things can cave in quickly in those scenarios. I can’t help people like that. I think the relationship that you develop between a doctor and a patient, once it’s violated it’s hard to get it back,” said Dr. Popp. This of course is the exception and not the rule at Dr. Popp’s office. Both his staff and Dr. Popp himself enjoy their work and respect their patients.
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