I screwed up.
The other day I was sitting on the examination table in my doctor’s office. We just finished chatting about, well, the things you talk about with your physician. This doctor is a general practitioner and a gastroenterologist. He’s been my GP for decades.
As we were wrapping up, he said, “I have bad news.”
All of sudden my heart sank. I’m like, WAIT! WHAT??
Immediately I thought he had heard something alarming through his stethoscope that would change my life forever!
Seconds later, he sat back down and let me know that after nearly 40 years in practice at that location, they are moving. First shoe dropped.
He then told me that the healthcare system he and his partner joined several years earlier was changing their practice to gastroenterology only. Second shoe dropped.
That’s it? There’s nothing wrong with my heart or lungs? Thank God!
As he began to explain what was happening, trying to balance what he felt was a bad decision and the letdown that he would not be my GP any longer, I began to wonder, is this how the communications team wanted physicians to explain the change?
Was the change and its rational clear?
Were the doctors part of the decision?
Did my doctor feel like the “system” cared about how this change would impact him and his patients?
Maybe. But it seemed probably not.
I’m thinking, great, now I need to find a new GP.
Here’s the thing – I was so caught up in thinking about how this change could have been communicated better and how it affected me that I did something quite out of character for me.
I did not thank my doctor for helping me stay healthy (and help me get healthy again when I wasn’t) for decades.
I screwed up.
I let my head lead my thinking, instead of my heart.
Can anyone relate?
As I exited the office, my brain was still swirling with how I felt about how I was informed and how I was going to find a new GP.
I.
I.
I.
I didn’t ask how the nursing staff how they felt about the change, or wish them well, even though I knew I would probably not see them again.
This week, I will call my doctor to chat about the lab work he ordered, thank him and his staff, and wish them well. I plan to send a card, too.
I speak, write, and coach about the importance of caring for others. Check out one of my articles.
Today, I’m holding up a mirror to remind myself to do that, too.
