Posted on 07/09/2023 2:24:11 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Objective General practice receptionists provide an essential function in the healthcare system but routinely encounter acts of incivility and aggression from patients, including hostility, abuse and violence. This study was conducted to summarise what is known about patient-initiated aggression towards general practice receptionists, including impacts on reception staff and existing mitigation strategies.
Design Systematic review with convergent integrated synthesis.
Eligibility criteria Studies published at any time in English that examine patient aggression experiences of reception staff in primary care settings.
Information sources Searches of five major databases were performed (CINAHL Complete, Scopus, PubMed, Healthcare Administration Database and Google Scholar) to August 2022.
Results Twenty studies of various designs were included, ranging from the late 1970s to 2022 and originating from five OECD countries. Twelve were assessed as high quality using a validated checklist. Reviewed articles represented 4107 participants; 21.5% were general practice receptionists. All studies reported that displays of aggression towards receptionists by patients were a frequent and routine occurrence in general practice, particularly verbal abuse such as shouting, cursing, accusations of malicious behaviour and use of racist, ablest and sexist insults. Although infrequent, physical violence was widely reported. Inefficient appointment scheduling systems, delayed access to doctors and prescription denial appeared common precipitators. Receptionists adapted their behaviour and demeanour to placate and please patients to avoid escalation of patient frustrations at the cost of their own well-being and clinic productivity. Training in patient aggression management increased receptionist confidence and appeared to decrease negative sequalae. Coordinated support for general practice reception staff who had experienced patient aggression was generally lacking, with a small proportion receiving professional counselling.
Conclusions Patient aggression towards reception staff is a serious workplace safety concern for general practices and negatively affects healthcare sector function more broadly. Receptionists in general practice deserve evidence-based measures to improve their working conditions and well-being for their own benefit and that of the community.
Registration Pre-registered in Open Science Framework (osf.io/42p85).
I’m guessing one of the aggressions is from patients waiting.
If an appointment is at 1:00pm, meet the patient at 1:00pm. Don’t have patients sit in a room for 1/2 an hour or more.
If the appointment is at 1:00pm don’t tell me to be there 15 minutes early. Paperwork is part of the appointment.
How could anyone ever even get miffed at such angels totally committed to the good of both doctor and patient?
They are tyrants in training with a smile on their face and power in their position.
Stùdy unnecessary
‘I’m guessing one of the aggressions is from patients waiting.’
I’m guessing a lot of it came from bitchy receptionists (mostly young females)snarling about facemasks having to be worn ‘over the nose’...
I get my health care from the VA or I pay Cash for things outside that scope.
My main observation is making people wait pisses them off and the receptionist is the closest target.
As a rule I always ask for the earliest appointment of the day.
Generally they are on time.
Things happen during the day and doctors and nurses get delayed.
Last thing I want to do is wait an hour after a 3 PM appointment. My BP goes through the roof.
Most people presume that as disrespect, when in actuality it may have been un-avoidable due to what happens in a doctors day.
Receptionist bears that anger in the general public.
I don’t pick on receptionists.
Some people do.
“… As a rule I always ask for the earliest appointment of the day.…”
*****************************************************************
Smart. That’s a practice I try to follow also.
It's all those stupid Covid questions they ask you every time you have an appointment.
Sometimes it’s difficult to get the attention of a receptionist deeply engrossed in shopping online.
Why would anyone snap at the receptionist?
How about because the doctor is hiding in the back room and the PA is the only contact?
I go to three clinics. At only one do I see the doctor and that is because he is the only person who can do what is required.
The other two, the family doctor and the dermatologist are never ever present.
Fifteen years and I have never seen either.
And to add to that, my wife is at this moment suffering extreme pain and has since July 3rd. Two trips to the emergency room of a very well known hospital, but only determination of the pain source and instructions to see an orthopedic specialist.
Tomorrow morning was the first appointment available. Family doctor (hers, not mine) advised no time available until Tuesday.
One entire week, two full days spent in the ER and still suffering without a doctor’s attention.
And I am supposed to smile and be a good guy?
Read my tag line. The medical profession is no longer a profession. It is a money machine the operates on factory hours.
Not so for the nurses, but doctors and hospital/clinic management.
The very idea that a person is in such pain and the only answer you get is “Come in next week”.
My analysis, from decades of experience and many, many, doctor visits:
Female receptionists HATE men. “Fill this out, then sit down.”
Female receptionists with women: “Oh, love your hair!”. “Please have a seat. The doctor will be right with you. Would you like a drink? How’s little Billy?”
I’m not feeling kindly about this attack against receptionists who are usually female. It fits right in with the last post here in FR. Men erasing woman by taking their jobs and winning women’s contests across the world. NO, we won’t go quietly.
I have found it to sometimes be the other way round: the receptionists can be nasty.
I have now found a good doctor with all polite staff. Not going to a different one ever again
“I’m guessing one of the aggressions is from patients waiting.”
Recently, I had an appointment with GP at 11:15.
Got there at 11:00
Went into the exam room at 12:35 (yes, an hour and 20 minutes past my apt. time)
Stayed in exam room until 1:10 (35 minutes, almost 2 hours past apt. time).
Walked out without seeing doctor.
There was zero communication through all of the waiting. Nothing. All it would have taken for me to be more patient would have been, “Mr. suthener, the doctor got called to the hospital”, or “a patient coded during their exam”, or something. But apparently communicating with patients is not a priority. At some point she will quit filling my prescriptions and I will have to try to see her again. Looking forward to that (sarcasm).
I needed a change of underwear after that one.
“I have found it to sometimes be the other way round: the receptionists can be nasty.”
That right there in a nutshell.
I went to an oral surgeon once. The guy was an excellent doctor. I mean I’m not a doctor myself so I can’t give him a peer review but he seemed competent and had good bedside manner.
His staff was another matter. They all rode around the office on broomsticks and for that reason alone I’d never go back unless he got rid of them.
Now I realize good help is hard to find but the receptionists is the first person everyone meets in your company. That person can make or break your company. So don’t have someone who is stirring the cauldron as they are checking you in.
And, I know one primary variable is patients who are addicted to pain meds and are there to get a Rx refill. My wife is a surgical ortho PA and I was very pleased when the law was passed that mid-level providers could no longer write scripts for the heavy duty drugs.
She used to have street trash in her face demanding dope and she refused. Now, since the law was passed, they no longer come around.
It sure is. I used to tell patients they should charge doctors for the time spent beyond what was reasonable. I also told them to never book the first appointment thinking they would be seen quickly. Nope, doctor may still be doing rounds.
What was galling is patients screaming because the doctor kept them waiting but the minute the doctor shows up they became sweet as pie. YELL AT THE GUY! He kept you waiting not the poor front desk lady.
That only works if the doctor does not do morning rounds at the hospital. If s/he does you can bet delays will happen.
My daughter worked at ER reception is two different ERs.
She stayed with the second one, because they had installed 2-inch-thick Plexiglas between her and the vermin.
Sat night was always fun when the Tongans and Simonians got into it. The police were quick to respond, thank goodness.
She quit working after she completed her degree - now runs her own business.
When my GP says to show up at 1:00 he doesn’t mean 1:05. He schedules things so there is never a wait and almost never anyone in the waiting room. A very practical guy. He doesn’t take on more patients than he can see. Not terrified of missing a fee. The lady that has been working with him for about a million years is as nice a person as you could want to meet.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.