I have always taken the approach with our patients that I treat them like they are a guest in my home when they come to the office, or the way I would treat a relative or good friend. I hold to the standard that people deserve to be treated with respect and kindness no matter what, even when they are not so kind back (but that is another blog topic).
I want our patients to feel cared for and comfortable. I also want them to know that we are a business with high standards that we will not compromise on. Since I believe that our ethical standards and our integrity speak volumes about who we are as a human, I am always a bit shocked when I encounter someone who asks me to slip below that high standard, and that is what happened this week.
One of our patients who had been in an accident a couple of months ago with a fractured foot, called me to ask if I would write him a note to excuse him from jury duty. At first I was a bit confused because I thought he was doing great at the last visit, no longer in a cast and starting physical therapy, but maybe I was wrong. I check his records and sure enough he had even been released to go back to work with limited duties. So I asked him what was the reason that he wanted me to write this note stating he was disabled and could not attend jury duty, had something happened since his last visit a week ago? He very promptly replied that he just didn’t want to mess with having to go, so he thought it wouldn’t be a big deal for me to would write him an excuse not to.
I very nicely explained to him that not only would I not do that, but that I was accountable to our court system and when I did have to write a letter regarding a patient’s disability, that the court required me to tell them if there was any way that the patient could come to serve what would need to be done (such as if they could not drive because they were in a cast that the court could send a cab or a wheelchair express van to pick them up and bring them).
He was not happy about this as he did not want to serve jury duty, but he did not push the issue any further, which I was glad of. What really got to me though was that he did not think it was any big deal to ask me to lie. I am still a bit shocked today that he would do this and to our court system to boot! How good would I look if I thought it was no big issue to lie to our local court system? I wonder if he really thought through what he was asking me to do very well?
The really sad part for me is that now his standards are quite a bit lower than I had thought them to be, as would be expected when you find out that someone has lied to you or is asking you to lie for them.
Do not compromise your standards for anything, they speak so loudly of who you are, what you believe, and what others can believe in you for.
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