When a Patient Is Injured In Your Practice

 It is a fear and unfortunately a common reality that injuries occur at the practice. A patient trips and falls on a loose rug. A patient has a seizure and hits their head on the cabinet. Or, in Dr. Kuba’s case, a patient sits on a bench and it breaks. The variety of ways an injury can occur is endless. In this episode, Dr. Kuba walks through a recent injury that occurred in her practice. She and Bethany discuss the nuances of what the team should and should not say and do. They also discuss the importance of making sure your team is trained and ready for the occurrence. This is definitely an episode you do not want to miss! 

Previous Episodes Worth Revisiting:
How to Prepare for a Board Complaint
When the Sh!# Really Hits the Fan: Part Two Lawsuit 

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Transcript

hey friends it's the last week of January which means that you have five
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days left to take advantage of two amazing opportunities number one our
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January bonus content will be expiring at the end of this week so take action
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today and become a subscriber you do have an opportunity to get 50% off your
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first month subscription so take out on that today you also have the amazing
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opportunity to sign up for one of our Consulting crash courses that will be occurring throughout this year now we
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have a 20% off discount that it is ending on January 31st so you don't want
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to miss that opportunity for you and your team all that to say take action
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today's the day enjoy the episode
1:00
hey friend hey hey so I know you already know some of what happened and
1:07
transpired in my office but I think this would be a good one to talk about cuz it's just so fresh and there were a lot
1:13
of uh tangential things that came out of this um that I thought would be great
1:21
topics for our listeners to think about because I was thrusted into it and um
1:26
and I'm but I'm I'm really hesitant to talk about it because I don't want it to feel like a recurrent theme and a
1:34
reflection on me I'm serious you're laughing and I know why you're laughing but do you you can see where I would
1:40
hesitate on this cuz somebody doesn't know me and doesn't know like all the OCD that I have about things you would
1:46
think I'm just falling ass backwards right and left and like oopsy dooo so
1:52
I'm going to talk about this but I'm going to preface it with I'm defending myself going dude I I don't know I don't
1:58
know what to say how is it TR me um I
2:03
don't I don't know do you you you I don't know because you're
2:10
such a precautionary like cross every te dot every eye every system in play like
2:19
you're overboard in a good way on these things I just do you have a do you have
2:25
a client that this has happened to twice now or even once once yes plenty of
2:31
oners okay plenty of oners two I'm hesitating on so well WTF
2:39
man okay so whatever let's just talk about it here and but I just want to say
2:44
I'm I'm if anybody has any suggestions please please let me know because I am
2:50
clearly not doing something right but it made me feel better because you were there on Thursday for our team meeting
2:56
day and you even were like I I'll I'll I'll say what you said later I was like I'm so glad she said that because um but
3:03
okay now I'm just talking and and let me slow down back up connect some Dots here so uh let's see I don't even know where
3:10
to start this um but let's say Wednesday it was Wednesday in my practice right
3:15
yes this past Wednesday and I wasn't there I had to take my mom to an
3:20
appointment and then my dad to somewhere else so I had a a uh day off that was my
3:27
uh administrative SL day caregiving Day right and so I'm with my mom at our at
3:34
her first appointment you know 8:30 in the morning I've dropped my kids off gone across town picked her up gotten
3:40
her to her appointment and like right then I look at my phone as we're waiting for her to be called and I see a um
3:49
image come through from my RDA on text and and it's like this bench and I'm
3:55
like what is she trying to show me here and the words say like broken bench something and I'm like
4:00
okay didn't really connect the dots there and then like about 10 minutes later I see I'm like checking my email
4:07
and I see an email from my receptionist and in all caps and it's an email to you and I which I'm sure like you hadn't
4:14
seen you're probably busy with clients the only reason I saw it is cuz I'm sitting in a waiting room waiting to be
4:19
called with my mom and it's an all caps and it says um incident details of the
4:25
incident I'm like what the hell is this so I read it and it's basically like like same as before a new patient in the
4:33
office so somebody we don't have rapport with and I guess we have our play area
4:40
in the back and there's a bench so I'm going to get into all the nitty-gritty of all of this but for now there's a
4:46
bench that um I mean it's a normal bench it's not a pedos siiz bench it's for
4:52
anybody can sit on and I guess this Dad sat down and the bench collapsed M so
4:59
now he's on the floor and um they hear this big thud and then I guess the
5:04
reception the two the two people at the front desk come running back and this guy is like trying to pick himself up dust himself off checking himself like
5:12
did he get hurt anywhere and like they're like what happened and apparently the bench he was sitting on
5:18
collapsed and so where I say for anybody who's a newer listener I've talked a lot about the other incident in our office
5:24
that happened two is years ago yeah which is still not resolved by the way but it was a young patient new patient
5:31
at that same thing not a patient of record somebody we don't have Rapport and Goodwill with and this 2-year-old
5:38
climbed onto a stool put all her weight onto a gaming station fell B busted her
5:44
lip open um had to go to the emergency room and now I'm being sued for her
5:50
lifelong trauma with her scar and her deformity and all of that so that's
5:55
still in litigation I still don't have a a end for that resolution yeah so here
6:01
we go again here we effing go again somebody else has had an accident in my practice so I'm sitting here going if I
6:08
was somebody who didn't know me I would be like what the hell are they doing in that practice but then I stop and I go
6:14
of all the places I go to any doctor's office and I've been in the doctor's office for both of my kids pediatrician
6:20
appointments two different sick visits a week apart and I'm looking on the pediatrician's office I'm like a kid
6:26
could hang from that and hurt themselves a kid I could sit in this chair and the chair collapse on me like am I the only
6:32
one like is every other office going and checking every chair daily to make sure like what H how and you said it in our
6:41
team meeting this is what I was alluding to before you said you know um cuz we do office walkthroughs I
6:47
think once a month once a week where we where we act like we're a new patient going through the practice and you're
6:52
looking for like paint's dinged there that sign is crooked there that rug is
6:58
got a turned corner there need to restabilize that so nobody trips on the rug like we already do that I don't know
7:03
many offices that do no anybody any of your clients do this I I've got because
7:09
I preach it I've got definitely a handful that do but no it's the exception it's not the rule thank you so
7:15
we do that anyway and I was like I don't know do we need to add to that sit in every damn chair in this practice to
7:20
make sure you're not going to fall or even to take it a step further look underneath the chair lay on the ground
7:26
look underneath the chair and evaluate tighten every screw and evaluate and you
7:32
said that you said that in our office you said maybe that's what we need to be doing and I was like for the love of God is anybody in any business doing this
7:40
right or am I just that unlucky that this happened twice now in my practice so now like my brain just goes to the
7:46
liability company if I call them back now I'm like oopsie had another guy fall in my office like nobody's going to
7:52
insure me right so anyway I I don't know
7:57
so okay let's back up then and get this out of my head and just kind of go okay so what my receptionist sent me was
8:05
incident details of the incident she's like you know this Dad came in sat down on this bench he fell we checked on him
8:10
he's fine he said he was fine he said he didn't need anything we removed the bench um he's supposed to bring his kids
8:18
back tomorrow like he brought the one kid he's bringing the other two tomorrow morning what do you think if we had a a
8:24
gift card for him like a massage gift card something nice and you know this reception is one of our super thoughtful
8:31
ones she's always like looking at things like that these little customer service touches are always something she always
8:37
comes up with um and so I really appreciated that cuz I'm sure like she
8:42
probably felt horrible that that happened to him in our office like she wasn't faking any empathy or anything like that and she really was concerned
8:49
about this gentleman and probably like she really does view the office as our home and she's probably embarrassed that this happened in our home to a guest in
8:56
our home which I thoroughly appreciate so my response was that is a great idea let me see what I can find today so as
9:03
I'm sitting there my mom's in her appointment I'm sitting there and I'm going okay like what what do I get at this point do I if we're going with a
9:10
massage gift card do I do like a Massage Envy do I do 50 bucks do I do a 100 bucks do I do 150 to cover the tip like
9:18
what do I I you know I don't know maybe do I do a spa finder do I and so as I'm
9:23
like starting to think about the logistics of this then I stopped and I went wait a minute wait a minute hold on
9:29
hold on from liability hat what does this look like and and me being just
9:34
very dumb I knew that liability was something I should consider now you
9:40
added it with a definitive statement so I'll let you get to that in a minute but for me in that moment I was like uh H
9:47
this may not be a smart idea and also from the point of if we're coming at this from a customer service I
9:54
care about you could that blow up in my face like if I gave you a $10 gift card
10:00
to Starbucks sorry for the incident in our office are you going to be like 10 bucks that's all I get if I give you $50
10:05
for a spa $50 is that all I get Massage Envy shouldn't I go to the Four Seasons
10:11
like I just not knowing people like could this blow up on me that's all I was thinking about from liability like
10:17
you brought a whole another liability perspective but for me that's where I was like uh this is where you're trying
10:23
to please somebody and it could blow up on you and then I thought about it from like okay if this had happen happened to
10:29
me and I was with my daughter at the pediatrician and I fell out of that chair the chair collapsed from under me
10:35
I would be mortified cuz I'd be thinking it was my fat ass that broke the chair and how many times do I apologize for
10:40
this do I offer to pay for another chair if I was bringing my other daughter back
10:45
the next day and they mentioned oh gosh Miss Kuba are you okay like whatever embarrassment of that I would be
10:52
freaking mortified I would be mortified if I opened my mail and I saw this gift card and my husband's like why did you
10:58
get a gift card man my fat ass broke their chair the pediatrician like do I have to relive
11:03
this and then what is my husband going to say oh you broke the chair they only gave you a $10 you know like it just
11:10
could go on and on and on and frankly I would rather never to speak of this
11:15
again if this happened to me right like let's pretend like this didn't happen and so that's how I started kind of
11:22
thinking about it and going okay like with that in mind a male versus a female a male is probably more likely I don't
11:28
know what do I know I don't know and so I kind of started going well if he said he was fine and would rather forget
11:34
about it but then I don't know is he going to go home and tell his wife this is what happened now his wife going to call us and say he's limping or he's a
11:40
backache like oh my God I have no idea what to do here now I don't know what to
11:45
do so then I message you it's like what should we do here and so then I'm
11:51
messaging my manager well my manager wasn't copied on that initial email just you and I were so like okay I need to
11:57
rope her Loop her into this why did didn't receptionist Loop her in to begin with and I still don't have the answer
12:02
to that I don't know um and so she and I start going back and forth over you know
12:09
she's like well I'll be out and about let me try to get more information she goes cuz I didn't actually deal with
12:14
that Dad so let me go talk to the receptionist kind of see how dad's demeanor was and kind of go from there
12:19
so actually before I even go further do you think everything I've said already am I making too much out of this like
12:26
would most people just be like oh the dad was fine and move on like what what are your thoughts to this point
12:32
I well if you have a response of oh thank goodness he's okay moving on hold
12:38
your freaking horses because no this is exactly we are in an extremely litigious
12:45
Society more so than I have ever seen before and which is why once I finally
12:51
got to the my emails and your messages I was just sick this kind of stuff when it pops up for my clients
12:59
I am immediately sick because unfortunately I'm a worst case scenario
13:05
situation now I can talk myself back from it but my mind because I'm a planner I'm a strategist how can I solve
13:12
problems so when something like this comes up my mind goes all the places you
13:18
just went and then I start trying to go how can we solve this how can we get out in front of it so if you're somebody
13:24
that's like do D well thankfully he was fine just wait because something can
13:30
happen I even said this in the meeting I hate to be a Debbie Downer but somebody said like thankfully the dad was you
13:37
know seemed fine and um I think we're you know this will be in our past and I was like it may seem that way but he can
13:44
file a claim at any point we had the same exact thoughts about the little girl that fell in your practice it was a
13:51
couple weeks later you and I were both like oh starting to breathe a sigh of relief we hadn't heard anything like
13:57
hopefully we're past this and then bam what was it two months later it was
14:02
quite a while after the incident that you received the the notice from you know what I I think it was almost a year
14:09
later it almost a year later yeah and we thought it had gone away and then I
14:14
think because we I don't know whatever it it was it was where it um a few
14:21
months went by and I think we got something from a lawyer but and then our our side our liability company you know
14:28
whatever um countered back and then we never heard we thought it went away yeah and then it was like a year at the year mark I got
14:35
served with the um subpoena or whatever it was that I got served with yeah um
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okay so so no these are not the wrong reactions and and I
14:46
know I hate to I'm All About practice happy and that means worry
14:53
less practice the way you want to practice your your practice should bring you happiness like I and that is my
14:59
motto literally it says practice happy under all my signatures so I am a firm
15:05
believer in that so I hate to say something that might cast worry on any one of my
15:11
clients or any one of these listeners but you just cannot be too careful in
15:16
these situations please don't assume that everything's okay and we go on our hunky dory Mary way when something like
15:24
this happens it should cause a total and complete halt how did this happen did we
15:31
handle it correctly what do we need to do to make sure this doesn't happen again it it you got to have an
15:38
aggressive reaction to this situation because all the things that you mentioned could absolutely happen and
15:44
you're the choices that you make even down to the things you say are so
15:51
critical so that's where I want to throw up because I don't know if I had been
15:58
there would I have made the situation worse would I have made it better would I I I don't I don't have the answer to
16:03
that thank goodness I wasn't there but part of me because I tend to be like my receptionist where I just I'm a people
16:09
pleaser I I want to make sure people are okay and I I'm mortified that this happened while you were a guest in my
16:16
home and I probably would have been stumbling over myself are you okay are you okay like I could just see myself making
16:23
it like if he hadn't thought about it as something what if something I said made him now go oh wait a minute here yeah um
16:31
so I think that I'd like to come back and talk more about that so that people have maybe some tips to coach their
16:38
teams with so for me then again I the fact that my manager didn't really know
16:46
I kind of was like I don't know what to think about that maybe it wasn't that big a deal but at the same time my
16:51
receptionist is sending me this with all these caps and like making it seem like it's a big deal
16:57
so I I guess I'm not sure I guess I'll just wait for Bethany to tell me what
17:03
she thinks and so as the day is progressing right like I get my mom through her appointment I get her back home I've got now appointments of my own
17:11
and so as I'm thinking about it I'm like you know what I'm going to air towards I
17:16
don't want to make a big deal out of this and I don't think we should do a gift card for the two reasons simply
17:22
because I think I could get the gift card wrong and actually upset somebody who maybe wouldn't have been upset if I
17:28
don't compens them what they think or what they like or whatever and or I
17:33
would be mortified so I think just from that alone I think I'm leaning towards don't say anything and just be ready now
17:39
be ready for what I don't know like do I need to document this where do I document this how do I document this so
17:45
but because I was running around all day I kind of was just it was in the back of my mind but I hadn't really processed
17:50
the whole thing and I think I was waiting to talk to you to kind of go okay help me figure out what I'm doing here and so I ended up at my own
17:57
chiropractor appointment and they have a bench and so I asked them I was like hey what what would you do if I fell on this
18:02
and my chiropractor who owns her you know business there she was like you know I think I would just apologize profusely make sure they're okay and I
18:10
would leave it at that and I was like okay that's what I'm leaning towards as well and I think for me that alone I
18:17
think I'm sure dental offices again I'm going to pick on medical because I always pick on medical but it's how I
18:22
feel I feel like there's so many medical that don't even acknowledge you you I've just gone two visits in a row with my
18:28
kid two different kids for a sick visit not one did the nurse ask the kid how
18:33
are you what's wrong baby why are you not in school today come on back get on the scale here's your temperature mom
18:40
telling me what's going on like they're so not personable people and I think Dental we kill it like I think the fact
18:47
that my receptionist jumped up and acted like she cared about this man and his welfare she wasn't acting she really but
18:54
I think the majority of medical offices would probably make you feel like it was your fat ass that broke my bench yeah
19:00
like I think that's how it would be so the fact that we already made sure he was okay but then I stop and I go should this is that not what we should have
19:06
done right should we have played it like medical and been like oh wow did you jump on that bench wow sir how much do
19:13
you weigh is that how we should have like handle this like what I mean like I'm being Ser I mean I'm being funny but
19:19
I'm being serious like how how should we like to me the fact that the chiropractor said she would do the same
19:25
thing she would show concern oh my gosh are you okay I'm so sorry what just just happened here yeah but um maybe not
19:32
overdo it correct so we don't this is where we don't want to say too much so
19:37
and it's hard because this is this is in the moment it's not like we are like oh a man just fell in on on that bench
19:44
huddle up huddle up what's our strategy no we're knee-jerk reaction we're going
19:50
to check as medical professionals we should check on the person that potentially is hurt so but we have to
19:56
control what we say in that scenario so which is so sad and ridiculous honestly
20:02
it it's sad that we even have to make that comment but we could unintentionally imply guilt if we are
20:10
overdoing it with what we're saying so for example and we said this in your team meeting but um yes thank goodness
20:18
they went and checked on him are you okay oh here my goodness let me help you up anywhere hurting um and check on him
20:27
I'm going to throw in another comment with which will segue into something else let's just go with this for now but
20:32
check on him and then oh my goodness let me get this bench out of the way and we're we're moving that bench out of the
20:38
way let me find you a different chair here have a seat here even bringing the chair to that area even to keep them
20:45
potentially in that particular area um I am so sorry can I get you anything oh goodness I'm so glad you're okay and
20:51
then we walk away um here's what we don't want to do come
20:57
around the you know come around oh my goodness are you okay oh my gosh what happened what in the world this bench
21:05
like let me check this out let me somebody bring a flashlight let's look at this bench together let's see what
21:10
happened and oh what could have happen like if we're making a big deal about
21:15
the thing that he got injured on then we are starting to plant the idea that
21:22
something was wrong with that bench or um oh my goodness this bench well now I
21:29
know now I know why I kept cleaning up these black screws all around this bench well Dad Gum whoa Nelly you just
21:38
admitted that you knew something was wrong with the bench and you left it there which is not so we've got to be
21:44
really controlled we as long as we keep it on the patient care are you okay can I get you anything let me get a chair
21:50
but don't elongate it unless they're hurt I thankfully this man was not
21:55
hurt as far as we know he'd said Nothing Hurt um but if they're hurt that obviously
22:01
leads to a different set of scenarios like the young girl in your practice that fell she was hurt and so we we
22:10
address that differently now this is one thing I always suggest is the doctor should immediately be notified even if
22:17
the person is okay they're getting up and they seem fine we have a doctor in
22:24
the building that should come over and if nothing else just verbally check hey did you hit anything you know when
22:30
you're going down are you you feel okay oh yeah yeah yeah and the dad might have said oh yeah I'm totally fine totally
22:36
fine and if he kind of brushes off the doctor then the doctor moves on would that because I could see somebody's
22:42
argument being but what if that triggers the patient to go I was fine but now that he's asking if I'm fine should I
22:47
suddenly start saying like does that ever could have backfire on no he doesn't need to elongate it so he's not
22:53
like pulling out a stethoscope and listening to his heart and pulling out a flashlight to check for cussions don't
22:59
do any of that unless we believe the patient is injured if the if we as medical professionals believe that the
23:06
patient is injured he went down head first and is acting funny we need to
23:11
check for a concussion and we need to take all of those appropriate steps that that's a different story in this particular case the man said he was not
23:20
hurt the doctor's just coming by to casually check you okay I heard you fell anything hurting for you so we keep it
23:28
casual this goes back to that mirroring type communication if the dad's kind of brushing it off like it's no big deal
23:34
we're still doing our thorough check but we're brushing it off like it's no big deal as well um in this particular case
23:42
I do think anything like that that H any injury that happens in the office or potential injury the doctor does need to
23:48
be made aware so that he or she can assess the situation and um I think
23:54
that's an important aspect to this as well so I'm glad you said that so let's go back to what happened here so as the
24:00
day is going on and I'm kind of like going okay I'm formulating my plan because they said that the gentleman was
24:05
coming back the next day with his two other kids so I'm like so we need to know what we're going to say or not say
24:12
or do or not do the next day and even though I'd kind of ruled out in my own mind not giving a gift card and whatever
24:19
but if you had told me to give a gift card then I needed to have that ready and you know if I'm going to write a card with it like so I just was needing
24:25
to kind of figure out what the G game plan was going to be so then I reached out what was the next
24:32
step then I reached out to so I'd been in touch with my manager you were looped
24:37
in to to messages and all of a sudden I was like dum dum why don't you call my
24:43
associate who was there I haven't bothered to ask him because then he can shed some light on the demeanor of the
24:50
dad the disposition the you know was the dad acting funny was he seeming like he
24:56
was normal but then now he was kind of being snippy and short was he very gracious when he left like I just I was
25:02
trying to gather some nuggets so I could figure out how best to play this so call my associate by the way this is like at
25:08
6:00 in the evening call him he picks up I'm like hey man do you have a minute yes I do okay so tell me about the dad
25:14
that fell huh you know the dad that fell the new patient dad the one in the morning that fell I don't know what
25:20
you're talking about and I was like what and I'm like you don't know anything
25:25
that a man fell this morning in the practice and and broke the bench you are unaware of any of that going on he's
25:31
like I do not know what you were talking about and I was like I was so annoyed and I was
25:36
like okay never mind thank you and I hung up and so I was pissed at associate
25:41
right because in my mind I'm like this was such a slow day I looked at the schedule the day before there's like
25:46
five patients there in the morning it's not a big office how the hell do you not know that a gentleman fell in the
25:52
building like how are you that clueless what is wrong with you well talking to my manager she's like no no no we had a
25:59
lot of screamers in the office we had a couple of special needs kids and I don't know that he heard what happened and if
26:06
the front desk people didn't tell him how would he know how would he know and I was still like so I'm telling my
26:11
husband cuz he could see the look on my face when I walked in the door and he could just see the look on my face CU I was pissed at this point and he's like
26:17
what happened and I was like well so I give him the brief rundown and then I'm like an associate has no clue and he's
26:23
like how would he and so luckily that Cal me down I'm like okay you're right
26:28
like let me quit being like I wasn't there I don't know um so I was like okay
26:34
that's fair so again I was about to run out again had to get the kid from piano lesson whatever so I'm like I just want
26:40
to look up to see if I can figure out who this dad was and are there any notes about anything anywhere like whatever
26:47
cuz associate didn't even know which Dad it was and I'm like okay so I pul I was able to log in look it up didn't get any
26:54
clues there but I was like okay but maybe associate now that I know know who it was can get back with him and say so
27:01
call him back and I'm and he's like okay in the meantime like you know 1520 minutes that we had hung up he called
27:08
one of the assistants and was like Kuba just called me what the hell is she talking about yeah and so assistant
27:13
briefed him on who it was and so when I called him back I was like okay so apparently it was this dad and he's like
27:19
yes I talked to the assistant he goes all of that must have happened after I talked to him he goes because he was
27:26
sitting on the bench m and then I pulled him up to come look at an x-ray on the computer to talk about certain things
27:32
and then I think he went back and sat on the bench and then maybe somebody else pulled him up again so in my mind what I
27:38
liked hearing about that was it's not like the dad just sat and it collapsed like he up and down off of it yeah so
27:44
You' already sat on it and it was a safe place so maybe you did break the bench I don't know what you did you know so it
27:50
gave me more like okay I do have some defense here like that we're not just
27:56
putting out faulty things for people to sit on um and by the way people sit on that bench all day long so I really
28:04
don't know how I would how would I know that the bench is giving out yeah like I I really don't know the answer to that
28:10
how do I know that some kid in between wasn't jumping on it and two like I just don't know like how does one protect
28:17
their business is another question that I still don't have the answer to but in this particular case I'm like it's not
28:22
like the dad didn't sit on it he sat on it and was perfectly fine for a while it's the second or third time he sat on
28:28
on it that it collapsed so anyway um and so I was like you know what do you think
28:33
and and whatever and so I kind of though to him I was like you know if I was you I would be kind of pissed here because
28:39
the staff has left you high and dry and so you just needing to know that
28:45
communication for whatever reason why they didn't choose to communicate with this to you is bizarre to me but you
28:51
know it was another good thing for me too and I think also with the manager not exactly knowing and and already in
28:56
my mind too I was kind of annoyed at her to be honest because I was like the schedule was not robust there's five
29:02
kids in the building there's three assistants two hygienists two front that's going to doctor what the hell are
29:07
you all doing yeah and so between the two of them able to shed some light for me going well we had screamers autistic
29:13
patients we had a tough mom that were explaining a treatment plan to so people were busy so and only that's good that
29:19
this didn't mushroom cloud where really it was kind of contained right so I like okay that makes me feel better right
29:25
there too so um I think the other thing that that I haven't mentioned already that was another moment of really um
29:33
make a gut punch to me was in the email that was the all caps incident with Dad
29:39
and should we get him a gift card and all this the other thing she put in there was when we inspected the bench
29:44
later there was a rusty screw and maybe a screw missing and in my mind I was
29:49
like why would you put that in an email yeah because what you've left out of the email is were there 15 screws on the
29:55
bench and there was one Rusty one and one missing there were still 13 good screws in the bench which I would
30:01
imagine because people sit on that bench all day long including this Dad but just given that information alone I'm like
30:08
somebody suing me could take that and blow it up and make it seem like there were only three screws in the stool and
30:14
one was missing and one was Rusty so the stool we were negligent in putting out the stool that only has one screw what
30:20
are you thinking and did you say that in front of the dad God only knows what you said you know did you make a comment
30:26
like oh those are all those blocks screws I've been brushing up like no you haven't yeah and but what did you say to
30:33
him did you inspect it in front of the dad did you make a comment like oh there's a rusty screw but did you make a
30:39
comment about how many screws that are actually in the bench right so we're talking about one or two screws out of
30:44
20 versus it was just really defeating gut punch to me that she would put this
30:50
in an email I'm like why do we not have more sense than that because if you don't have more sense than that to put it in an email God only knows what you
30:57
said in front of this dad right right and so I think that was another moment of where I was just like I just give up
31:03
I think I'm ready for corporate to come buy this because I cannot be there every day manager and Associate have no clue
31:10
what's going on receptionist is making this seem like we are the most negligent place on the planet and wants me to go buy this man pay for all his medical
31:17
bills and I can't miss a day because clearly there's no communication and no
31:23
common sense in this building that's how I felt I know that's not fair I know that's dramatic imagine that me dramatic
31:29
what but that is how I felt in that moment um so anyway then you replied
31:35
back and can you tell me you gave us some really good advice and then can you kind of walk me through your thoughts as
31:42
you're getting my 10,000 emails voicemails texts about this incident
31:48
while you're clearly trying to help your other clients like you know sometimes I forget that I'm I think it's me you and
31:54
die friend well unfortunately um I didn't even become aware via email and
32:02
your messages until late late that night and so then I had immediate Panic cuz I
32:07
had Miss missed an emergency from one of my clients and you of all people I'm
32:12
like oh my gosh Bethy this major thing blew up and I didn't see it I don't think I even messaged you back until
32:19
like 10:45 at night so um I when I saw it it was my first thoughts
32:25
were how in the heck is this happening again yes that was my first thought like
32:32
how I I just I'm still baffled by it I I
32:37
just can't there's no words I don't have any words for it other than like what in the heck I can't believe I'm reading
32:42
this and hearing these messages again my second one was a an immediate reaction
32:49
cuz I was able to get caught up on what the um receptionist said should we buy a
32:55
gift card and I needed to immediately get the message you don't don't do that
33:00
um so and I was nervous because I was replying super late at night y'all start early the next morning I knew they were
33:07
coming in at some point in the morning and I was like crap Bethany you needed to get this message out sooner about not
33:13
no gift card um so the no gift card and no
33:19
acknowledgement is the other thing that I said I didn't want this coming up again at all with the dad if the dad
33:26
brought the kids back I didn't want us like oh how are you feeling today or I
33:32
didn't I wanted yesterday to act like it had never happened and so there's a reason for that number one the gift card
33:40
is just super clear anytime I know that somebody was
33:45
potentially injured on the property even though this man seems like he's fine but if I am worried that there could be some
33:52
kind of claim we don't want to do anything that implies guilt so as sad
33:59
and sorry as it sounds a gift card could imply guilt especially if it's a a gift
34:04
card to a massage place because what we're saying is you might be sore after your fall in our practice and I'm like
34:11
God no please do not give the man a gift card because if he wasn't sore before
34:17
we've now told him you might be sore just in the act of giving him the this gift card so talk about something that
34:23
could backfire I thought that could backfire um mentally him thinking oh
34:28
should I be sore after that fall and then also now it looks like we've we're implying some guilt cuz we're we're
34:35
gifting him with something so the general rule of thumb is the doctor should never ever ever ever pay for
34:43
anything related to this incident because it implies guilt and the LI it gives the liability company an easy out
34:51
and so we don't want any kind of compensation even down to a $10 Starbucks gift card so I know it sounds
34:59
counterintuitive CU you're like but the customer service thing to do not when somebody's potentially
35:04
injured on the property so I made that clear via the email that I sent out and
35:10
then I said no acknowledgement of it because I don't know what all was said
35:15
on the day of the incident but I do know that the team responded to it quickly thank goodness I
35:22
don't know what they said and I didn't want there to be a risk of something accidentally being said like oh gosh
35:30
well we checked that bench out and my goodness we were missing some screws I just it's too risky in my mind so I
35:37
wanted there to be absolutely no acknowledgement of it the other reason I didn't want acknowledgement outside of
35:43
fear of something being said was the embarrassment Factor again if we think about ourselves
35:50
as adult people we fell how embarrassing is that the last thing we want is for people to
35:56
remember the next day that we fell what do we do after we fall we get up run to
36:02
the other side of the room and hope that nobody saw and so what I didn't want to do is us bring it back up and now it's a
36:09
fresh wound and he's embarrassed all over again which I didn't want so for those two reasons I didn't want anything
36:15
being said at all to me that that's the best strategy for protecting the practice especially with no gift card
36:22
but it's also the best strategy for an ongoing relationship hopefully an
36:28
ongoing relationship with this particular family so that was my advice and we followed it yes you did um and
36:35
then at our team meeting you you kind of reiterated it with the team and said hey
36:41
you know this is why um even though they had already done it but you were you know kind of giving the why behind it
36:49
and um I think everybody was on the same page as far as like this is how we need
36:54
to handle these going forward we do need to inform the doctor we do need to document we do need to watch what we say
37:01
we need to so it was a good recap um and once again I I do not know what or how
37:07
this has happened again and I'm just I don't know what to say man I
37:12
don't know either but you know what it's another good lesson I hate that you have to keep being the lesson I'm really
37:18
sorry for that but I also think this is such critical information and if you
37:24
don't have a plan with your team or haven't thought through this before or aren't thinking worst casee scenario you
37:30
should be when it comes to this thanks for joining the conversation today we
37:35
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37:41
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