By Tony Samson
WAITING at the doctor’s office, say when he’s running late on his clinic hours due to a meeting or an emergency operation or you just happen to be the fourth person on the queue even if you were on time but others happened to be there already ahead of you (first come first served, Sir), makes you realize why in this encounter where supply and demand meet, the consumer is referred to as a patient and not customer. The marketing mantra, “the customer is king” which translates into “please attend to this buyer right away” does not apply here.
Still, in the health care business, while waiting patiently (the same root word for patient) is often a requirement, there are some exceptions. Some sectors in the medical field strive hard to serve the customer instantly. The eyewear business for one which provides vision enhancement quickly attends to the drop-in customer with a speedy ophthalmology seating to check the required grade of lenses (can you read the bottom line?) and an eager salesman bringing out an array of frames for the proper matching on different facial shapes.
The customer bias, that embraces quick service and instant attention to ensure patronage, applies as well to other health care areas such as independent outpatient testing clinics, fitness centers, and hospital emergency rooms. As to the last category, a “triage system” even puts a latecomer ahead of the queue if his needs are urgent, say a knife wound from a shirtless vagrant, or a choked throat from a fish bone.
Back to the patient. There is no intention to belittle, or heaven forbid, criticize, the medical profession on the enforced waiting that a patient is subjected to. In the areas of consultation and even elective procedures, like wart removal, circumcision, or liposuction, requiring the service of a medical specialist, the patient (noun) needs to be patient (adjective). The temporary unavailability of the designated physician due to trips abroad or conventions to attend or the limited capacity of certain required facilities need to be accepted. This customer/patient happens to need a particular service provider or procedure, not a generic product like potato chips. Rushing to get alternates (a second opinion) to provide the service raises risks and discomfort levels.
The term “patient” seems limited to the field of health and wellness, which covers the whole range of ministrations from diagnosis to cure and pain alleviation. The dictionary defines “patient” as “the ability to accept suffering in the form of delay, inconvenience, or even pain without becoming annoyed or anxious.” This characteristic seems to fit the description of one in need of relief and made to wait for its delivery. The metaphor for the patient man is of course the biblical Job on whom was visited by plagues, deaths, and loss of wealth as a test of faith.
The etymology of the word itself is Latin (of course) and is the present participle of the verb “patior” — patiens literally means “I am suffering.” Can it be any clearer how the term came to be applied to those awaiting comfort?
Why is the term for the sufferer in need of healing been solely applied to the medical field. Aren’t there service providers who also offer relief from stress who refer to the recipients of their ministrations not as patients but customers? Think about foot massage, nail spas, and landscape architecture.
The demand side of an exchange of goods and services is not always patient when made to wait or suffer. Doesn’t a restaurant with rude waiters, slow delivery of orders, and salty food eventually lose customers and shut down?
In the daily transactions of life, there is too the giving and taking of pain or relief, joy or sadness, help or hindrance, the one on the receiving end is not always patient. His relegation to be a sufferer is not always a matter of choice. Aren’t the citizens of a country made to take its ups and downs, its inconveniences and embarrassments, as well as its daily shocks?
Playwright George Bernard Shaw observes, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
The first step to being unreasonable is to lose patience. Only then can change happen, as the patient turns into a demanding customer.
Tony Samson is chair and CEO of Touch DDB.
ar.samson@yahoo.com
