On 18 May the first of 10 training on the management for family doctors took place in Chuguyiv in the framework of the Project supported by the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Donetsk (Dnipro office). 19 family doctors and nurses, economists and administrators of Chuguyiv Primary Care Center participated in the event. Trainers were Elena Reshetnyak and Mykhailo Dovgopol.
This training was an opening, through role-play situation we modeled the interaction between doctor and patient in the new reformed family medicine, where patients freely and consciously chose doctors. The most interesting was the discussion of the results (by the way, the results appeared quite hard for some doctors – some of them did not get a single "vote" from “patients”). What criteria used patients when choosing a doctor?
- doctor eagerness to serve patient and her amiability,
- doctor`s ability to listen and hear the patient,
- ability to understand the essence of patient`s medical problem, to identify priorities and behave properly in delicate situations,
- doctor`s ability to ensure the continuity of medical care (doctor remembers the problems that the patient report during earlier visits),
- and, of course, doctor`s clinical competence, i.e. his ability to provide desired outcome for patient.
So it is foremost a communication competency that provides doctor with the influx of patients. We will continue this thread in the training topic "Customer service for family doctor".
At the end participants did a little of math. They tried to calculate family practice budget under current financial provision from the state. If doctors works for Primary Care Center and has a list of 1,500 patients her earnings may be 7000 UAH. And if she is an entrepreneur then her earnings may be up to 12000 (compare to 4000 UAH current average salary of family doctor). These are absolutely realistic calculations! So, one has only to begin to manage their practice.
"Management training is quite different from medical studies. It destroys a lot of mind templates in healthcare workers starting from unusual form of learning (training, interactive) to the content – management skills, financial skills, communication skills. Therefore, we, the coaches, were a little nervous before the training wondering how this format will be taken by doctors. But as it turned out, fears were unfounded. However, the unusual shape of seating still caused a surprise but on the introductory stage the participants were more relaxed and talkative and showed high activity in the game", - Mykhailo Dovgopol stressed.
