Have you ever been asked that question – if so, how did you handle it? Maybe even more uncomfortable, how many times have you been aware that your patients or their family members were recording without telling you? In 39 states, it is perfectly legal for one party to record another party without telling them. What is the policy in your practice, or the hospital that you work at – is there even a policy?
Maybe asking those questions isn’t really the point – the more relevant topic is why do patients want to record. For the vast majority of them, the reason is the same – they just don’t recall the critical information you tell them. There are multiple factors that contribute to a patients’ lack of understanding, some of the more common ones include:
- Normal memory decline
- Poor health literacy
- Complex medical terminology
- Information overload
- Anxiety
- Organic disease
- Treatment-related cognitive issues
Whatever the reason, the results remain the same – regardless of the time you spent explaining things to that patient in clinic, many of them will leave your office confused with more questions than they had originally. With no recording to refer back to – they are left with two options, call your office staff to try and get their questions answered or remain frustrated feeling uninformed.
Best practices of top medical memory providers include pre-recording information they tell multiple patients – whether that is “What to expect the day of surgery”, “Surgical Informed Consents” or “Post-operative discharge instructions” to name a few examples. So, what can you do if your practice is not currently offering medical memory to your patients – how can you build trust with that patient that asks you if they can record?
First, remind yourself their reason for wanting to record – because they will forget up to 80% of what you tell them. Second, perhaps tell them you are fine with them recording but would prefer to have your conversation first and then at the end you will do a recap that they can record and third, tell them you would like them to send a copy of what they record to your office. Of course, you could always “take control of the recording” and contact medical memory to get you started saving time during the clinic, reducing post clinic phone calls and have happier more satisfied patients.
Learn More
Connect with one of our implementation specialists to learn more about how Medical Memory can help your practice save time and better engage patients.
Go to themedicalmemory.com or Contact us at:
sales@themedicalmemory.com or call 703.317.7165.