I needed a prescription filled and came across a pharmacy with no customers inside.
“Good,” I thought. “I’ll be able to get my prescription filled straight away.”
I took my prescription to the counter. No one greeted me. I waited. I looked over and saw a pharmacy assistant behind a desk writing on a sheet of paper. “Can I help you?” she said without getting up. I held up the prescription.
She continued writing, then got up and walked over. She stood in front of me and wrote some more before finally putting down her pen and taking the prescription.
“It will be 15 minutes,” she said.
I was confused. There were no other customers: “I can’t wait. I’ll come back later.” She replied: “Will you leave the prescription?” I said, “No. I’ll take it with me.”
Finally she got the message and said, with visible irritation: “I’ll see if the pharmacist can do it now for you.” The pharmacist came out and filled my prescription in 90 seconds.
Why was this lady so passive aggressive? Why didn’t she acknowledge me when I walked in? Why did she pretend she didn’t know why I was there? Why did she say 15 minutes when the pharmacist could do it straight away?
Do you have any passive aggressive staff in your office? You can recognise a pattern. There’s a veneer of politeness, yet everyone around them ends up annoyed.
Patients are left waiting without acknowledgement. They tell patients: “Apparently we need to squeeze you in somewhere,” in a tone makes them feel like a nuisance. A patient phones with a complaint and isn’t responded to for three days. They make patients feel dumb by saying: “As I’ve already explained to you twice…”
This type of behaviour can harm your practice. Patients may never tell you why they don’t return.
I’m sure the pharmacist is wondering why business is so bad. I didn’t tell him.
