Overcoming Challenges to Building Trust with Patients
Date(s)Zachary Korwin, DMD, FICO
Subject: 550 Practice Management and Human Relations
Credits: 1
Tuesday, July 12: 7:30–8:30 p.m. CDT
Audience: Dentists
Fee: $125 (nonmembers); $75 (members); $37.50 (students)
Description
Some providers may still remember the Norman Rockwell picture of American healthcare, where doctors knew best and patients would trust them just because. With the rapid acceleration of technology, generational shifts and consumerist culture, patient-doctor trust is no longer guaranteed. Is trust still important? Patient outcomes depend heavily on patient-doctor trust. Dental disease is a chronic illness requiring partnership between doctor and patient for optimal long-term treatment outcomes. When trust is absent, patients become noncompliant or nonexistent, leading to worse outcomes. Patient trust has as many positive outcomes for the practitioner as it does for the patient. It is essential in preventing provider burnout and leads to greater job satisfaction and case acceptance. What if you’re not a Norman Rockwell painting? Patient perception biases are all around us. We all know of providers who “look the part” and seem to capture patient trust just by walking into the room. Just as those who have a family history of illness need to work a little harder to screen for it, some also have to employ different strategies for counteracting patient biases and engendering trust and goodwill in their patient base. We will explore implicit and explicit challenges to building trust with patients as well as specific strategies for systematically achieving patient trust in a predictable and reproducible way.
Learning Objectives
- Understand and recognize the values associated with a trusting doctor-patient relationship.
- Name the three provider-specific benefits of creating patient trust.
- Utilize analog and digital strategies for engendering trust with new and existing patients.
- Practice trust-building in daily clinical practice.
Speaker Bio
Zachary Korwin, DMD, FICO, is a full-time general dentist practicing in Connecticut. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) School of Dental Medicine. He is a past associate clinical professor at UPenn and Temple University, where he was often confused for a student. He is past chief clinical operations director for a midsized dental service organization, where he was responsible for training offices and associate dentists. He has lectured at the UPenn Medical School and has been featured on several dental podcasts. He is the creator of Automated Patient Experience, a dental software company.