#848: How to Handle Rude Patients

The Dental A Team Podcast

There’s always that one patient… Kiera talks about the professional way to go about communicating with a rude patient, even when it includes dismissing them (listen up for dismissal letter verbiage!). Remember: There’s always a lesson to be learned in these situations.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.91)

Hello Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera and welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I hope you guys are having the best day of your entire lives. I really do mean that. Today is, there's a really cool quote that I read and I want you guys to have it. It says, no matter how many mistakes you make or how slow your progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who isn't trying. That's from Tony Robbins. And I just, I read that the other day and I thought, gosh, our podcast family and our clients need to just realize like,

We really are doing so much more than we think we are. We're doing so much better than we give ourselves credit for. So I hope you just like give yourself a nice pat on the back. I'll do it for you. Uh, but really you are doing a great job and I think it's so easy to criticize and it's so hard to compliment. And I think we build momentum in either one of those ways. And so look to see which way you're building momentum consistently. So today guys, I am on a quick tactical podcast. Are you guys ready for this? I hope you are. Um, one of these is going to be just really fun.

I want you guys to have a quick tactical on how to handle difficult or rude patients. Don't worry, I go from like, it's amazing and we're so happy to like, how do you deal with those rude patients and what do we do with them? So if you're loving our podcast, please do me a favor and help us get into the hands of every dental practice out there by sharing this, by sending it to somebody who could use it, by someone who needs that boost, even if it's not this one, but send our podcast to somebody and leave us those reviews.

That's how you guys are going to help us beat the tough dental podcast that is shared with all of the practices, because if we can help them be better, we help more patients, we serve more people, and we're able to all rise together. So with that, how do we handle these rude patients? Number one, I think about, let's define difficult or rude patients. Are they a good patient or do they just like, when we see their name on the schedule, do we all just like, because I have two people, one is the assistant dean from Midwestern.

He told me that every year at Christmas time, he gave his team a gift and they were all able to go through and they actually dismissed like the top patients that really just made all of them cringe. And that was the gift he gave his team. And I've thought about that so much because we oftentimes think like we need every patient. No, we don't. We actually need those kind patients and we want the patients who are great patients that we don't look at. With that said though, there are some that will challenge us and I don't want you dismissing people that challenge. Now difficult or rude ones that we just literally like, oh my gosh.

Kiera Dent (02:27.406)

Give yourself the freedom and the luxury of realizing it's okay to dismiss them. And the way we can do that in a professional manner is you can just write them a letter and just say like, hey, Kie

ra, at this point, we don't feel that we are serving and meeting your dental needs the way that we want to. And we're so committed to always being able to serve our patients at the highest level. We never ever, ever want to leave you empty handed or without a plan and a path.

So as of now, we are having you removed as a patient within our practice due to the fact we don't feel like we're serving you at the highest level. And we're actually going to be recommending you to, and you list off two or three different dentists that are amazing in the area that could take great care of them. Now check with your legal team, just make sure. But really it's just, we're dismissing them in a professional manner. We don't feel like we're serving them at the highest level. And so we're going to actually dismiss them, but we're going to give them a place to go.

And so we actually do have a sample one. It is not legal, and I will put stamps all over it. But it's one that you can say, after careful consideration and thought, we found that it will be in all of our best interests to sever the practice patient relationship here that we have with you. We found that we may not be the best fit for your dental needs and are unable to carry out the services you may require for your specific case. At this time, we're recommending that using dental care through a new dental care provider.

And from there, like that was a little more direct. I do like it. I also think though, like, let's give them a few other options of where they can go. So we can like, we're going to make sure that they're informed, that they're guided, that we make sure that they're going to be given some help. And I really think that it's fine. I'm like, we just don't feel like we're serving you at the highest level. And due to that, we are severing the relationship where we are.

ending our relationship with you. And here are a few other practices that we think would be incredible that are going to take great care of you, because we really do want you to be taken care of. I don't care how much you dislike these people. You all know that you want these people to be taken care of. You know that you want to love them and serve them at the highest level. And you know that you want them to be taken care of. We don't want to want to just like kick someone off onto the street. We do want them to be taken care of. But at the same time, you don't need to have every patient in your practice.

Kiera Dent (04:43.566)

And if they literally do make you're like, Oh, it's the groan. It's the, I just would rather not see this patient ever again. Do yourself a favor. Um, I have a reminder that pops up on my, on my tasks every so often. And I said, only work with clients who light my soul on fire. And, uh, that was something I had to realize. And that doesn't mean that if you don't light my soul on fire, that there's no other consultant in our company. Um, but for me to really realize that.

the soul sucking energy was actually taking a lot more from me with working with clients that maybe I wasn't best suited for, or maybe we just didn't jive as much. Like I love my clients that when I get on a call, my soul is filled. It doesn't matter if it's a hard thing or not. Like that's who I want to work with. And so for you in practicing, there will be some patients that you want to dismiss. And so I really, really, really would just say, we send them a letter. We say, as of this day, as of this time, we are no longer seeing you as a patient. And here are the people that are going to be great.

make sure that their balances are all taken care of. We want to make sure that we have that taken care of for you because there's also a space like if we do have collections, we also need to dismiss them with the collection. So like if it's someone who has a collections balance that we can dismiss them from the practice as well. So we've contacted for a dismissal because of collections, we can say we've contacted you several occasions with monthly statements, telephone messages and personal letters.

regarding your outstanding balances with our practice. We have determined that due to the noncompliance with our practice's financial policy that we must terminate our dentist -patient relationship. In order to allow you adequate time to find another dentist, we will be available during regular business hours for the same safety visits time permitting should an emergency arise in the next 30 days. You may contact the local dental society or find somebody else, and we're happy to forward your x -rays to your new dentist. And that's how we can dismiss them.

I really do love if I have dentists that you can recommend or again, like here's a few that we know do take your insurance because we really do want to make sure that you're taking care of. I do like that version of it as well. If you do want to offer the 30 days for them just to make sure that they're taking care of because there's so many ways that we can handle these patients. But again, I don't want you dismissing somebody or I wouldn't recommend that you just somebody who challenges you or who.

Kiera Dent (07:04.398)

who forces you to be better, right? There's, I know I have some clients that, well, they might not quote unquote light my soul on fire. They're probably really good for me because their questions and the things they do, and they're not disrespectful to me. They just challenge me and they make me have to be a better version of myself. Now, the ones who are rude or difficult or never keep their appointments or they don't pay their balances or it's just, it's so much headache. My thoughts are, why are we doing this? We're a service industry.

And if they're not meeting our expectations, let's dismiss them. Do yourself and your team the favor. Dismiss them. You can do it in a professional manner. You can send them a letter. You can have it where you work with them for 30 days. There's a way for you to be able to work with them and send them to another provider. Please don't pass your bad patients to your friends. But remember, just because they're a difficult, rude patient for you might mean that they would, doesn't mean that they'd be a bad fit for someone else.

I also want you to really look at it as to why are they so difficult and what have we done to not have those clear expectations? So if they're always missing appointments, did we not have a clear policy on that? If they're constantly running late, did we not have a clear policy on that? If they're not paying their balances, did we not have a clear policy and protocol on that? So this way we do everything on our side too to make it to where it's there. So instead of.

blaming them. Let's also take some ownership doesn't mean we don't dismiss them. I'm totally fine because it should light your soul on fire. And I hate when there's a patient like I know exactly who it was. It Dr. Calls office we had a patient named Betty. I was like, I hate seeing Betty. Like she's just so mean and she takes so much time and she never is paying and there's always a problem with everything that we ever do. Like, I just don't enjoy this.

But again, let's look to see, did we not have a policy in place of like warranty work of we will do one visit for you. And then after that, each additional visit will be a normal limited exam fee. That's a simple way to actually fix this difficult, rude patient with a simple protocol to let them know the rules of the game. And so that's something else I would do is with these difficult, rude patients, how can you change the rules of the game and make it stronger and better to where you can serve them? Do we just need to change the rules of the game and help them out? And then they become these amazing patients.

Kiera Dent (09:17.39)

that could also be the shift. So one, before I dismiss, let's look to see what is truly the root cause and is there something we can change in our protocols or our policies to not have them be a difficult or a rude patient? Number two, dismiss them. It's okay. Give yourself the freedom and the gift and make space for these incredible patients to come in that value, value your team, value your time, because you're going to be happier and you'll be in a better state of flow. And that doesn't mean that we have to do it in a rude way.

We send them a letter, we take care of them, we give them the recommendations, but we are very clear that we are severing the relationship. They will no longer be seen in our practice and that they do need to find another practice and we're here to support them on that path. Whatever your verbiage is, again, that's gonna be a path for you to talk with your CPA and your lawyers and just make sure it is compliant and that you can send it off. And so just get that approved. Those are some samples I gave you, but do do your due diligence on that. So with that, I think that this is awesome training for your team as well.

to let them know how we handle it, how we look for it. And this is something I really love because in the Dental A Team, we don't just work with dentists, but we work with your teams as well. And so we're able to give them those tools and those resources and that help. And so if we can help your team and empower them of how to handle these difficult patients, because sometimes it's our protocols that create the difficulty, not necessarily the patient. We weren't clear with our expectations. Therefore, we need to actually have them reset. So with that reach out, if we can help, [e-mail]. Here's your quick tactical.

how to handle those difficult, rude patients. Remember, you deserve to have patients who light your soul on fire, who make you so excited to come to work, not dreading to come to work. And those ones that you do dread, let's move them along, serve them at the highest level, always end in the most professional, compassionate way, and do yourself a favor. So, and if we can ever help and serve, reach out [e-mail].. Click on the link if you guys want some help with these dismissal letters, be sure to reach out [e-mail].. And as always, thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast.