Following on from the last 2 Monday Morning Email’s we are uncovering the ‘8 things’ you should never say to a patient & this Monday we dig into – “I can’t find your file.”

Though being truthful with your patients is imperative, you also want to convey the utmost professionalism and the impression that they are receiving the best care possible in your practice. No patient likes to hear that their files are missing, cannot be found and so on, especially if they’re already a bit nervous and anxious because they have presented to your clinic in pain.

This type of information is kept best to yourself and your staff, particularly because your patient has nothing to do with their missing or lost file. Figure out where the file is as quickly as possible and get on with the history, examination, tests and then treatment, otherwise, you’re going to needlessly stress out your patient over a silly and easily preventable administrative hiccup. Of course, for those of view that use practice management software ‘soft clinical notes’ this should never become an issue unless you have technical hardware or software issues or if the power goes out.