The Performance of Medicine: Techniques From the Stage to Optimize the Patient Experience and Restore the Joy of Practicing Medicine

by Bob Baker

Overview

"The Performance of Medicine is a witty, funny, folksy, intimate, yet serious, and detailed discussion about issues surrounding 'patient satisfaction' in today's world of health care.
--Samuel Harrington, MD, author of At Peace: Choosing a Good Death After A Long Life

This book is a much-needed guide on how to be the doctor you always wanted to be, both for your patients and for yourself. --Kedar Sankholkar, MD, Cardiologist, NYC

Baker is a natural story teller - a combo platter of Aesop, Garrison Keillor, Homer, and Bob Hope. --Vincent deLuise, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology Yale University School of Medicine

Medical practice is undergoing the most radical changes seen in decades. Novel reimbursement models, impersonalization caused by technology, and increasing demands on providers' limited time are causing unhappiness among practitioners and patients alike. Yet, the patient experience and patient satisfaction are more important than ever. Patient experience affects patient outcomes, and patient satisfaction scores will affect how much physicians and other health care providers get paid.

In The Performance of Medicine, Dr. Bob Baker offers practical strategies and techniques that physicians and other practitioners can implement easily and immediately to give patients the best possible experience with no additional expenditure of time.

An internist/gastroenterologist with 35 years of private practice experience, and a professional magician/ventriloquist with 50 years of live performance experience, Dr. Baker seamlessly weaves the techniques he used to garner top reviews from his patients and audiences alike. His book is practical, substantive, warm, and humorous. His love of medicine and of his patients shines through on every page and will inspire health care providers to rediscover the joys of medicine.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940155186038
Publisher:	Best Job Productions, LLC
Publication date:	04/03/2018
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

Table of Contents

Foreword xi

Introduction 1

Section I Where We Are

Chapter 1 The Changing Medical World 15

Chapter 2 The Patient Visit Is a Performance 28

Chapter 3 I'm Not a Performer and Don't Want to Be 39

Chapter 4 What Patients Want 48

Section II Techniques and Strategies

Chapter 5 The Five Basic Performance Techniques We Need 63

Chapter 6 Setting the Stage 78

Chapter 7 In the Room with the Patient 92

Chapter 8 The Performance Must Go On 111

Chapter 9 Improvisation and Storytelling 124

Section III Moving Ahead

Chapter 10 Putting It All to Work 139

Chapter 11 When Things Go Wrong 145

Chapter 12 What Others Say 154

Chapter 13 Curtain 164

Appendices

Collected Takeaways 169

Appendix I Dr. Adam Smith's Script 177

Appendix II Charles "Buck" Adams on Body Language 181

Appendix III Norman Kanter, PhD on Handling Anger 187

Appendix IV What Really Happened at America's Got Talent 195

Acknowledgments 199

References 205

Editorial Reviews

2018-06-19
Baker (Successful Surgery, 1996) urges physicians and other medical professionals to up their patient-interaction games.The author leverages his unique background as both a medical doctor and ventriloquist/magician to craft a book with an intriguing message: that meeting with a patient is "a performance." At first glance, his notion to "bring techniques from the stage into the practice of medicine" may seem quirky, but his goal of increasing patient and practitioner satisfaction is quite serious. Baker begins with an overview of how patient care has changed in recent years, including the fact that a majority of today's patients choose doctors based on online reviews. Due to health insurance constraints, he says, the face-to-face patient encounter is "the only thing" that medical staff "can directly control." He believes that this interaction should engage the patient as much as possible, like a performance does, so that the healing process can effectively begin. Early on, Baker wisely raises hypothetical objections to his own premise ("After all, isn't a doctor the opposite of a performer?...A doctor is genuine, caring, and empathic—certainly not a performer, certainly not a fake!"), addressing each one with a lighthearted informality that should charm practitioners into giving his ideas a fair hearing. He then proceeds to share specific techniques and strategies for executing a great "performance," including "Listening and Observing," "Responding in the Moment," and "Staying in Character." He describes each specific technique, illustrating them with relevant examples from his own experience and input from experts at acting. Baker makes sure not only to address interactions with patients, but also the necessary preparations before these encounters as well as required follow-up. A final section helpfully discusses how to implement the author's ideas, sensitively addresses what could go wrong, and offers supporting statements from other physicians. Enlightening appendices include one doctor's performance "script," a useful overview of body language, and commentary on how to "deal with patients who make us angry."A novel approach that should enlighten and reinvigorate medical professionals.

Kirkus Reviews