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For added success in practice, attitude adjustment needed
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 K. Bhujang Shetty |
One surgeon has taken a new approach to practice management, advising his colleagues to look differently at their patients, colleagues, work and life itself to find success.
“The right mix of art and science leads on to luck and fortune,” said K. Bhujang Shetty, MBBS, MS, of Bangalore, during a presentation at the Indian Intraocular Implant and Refractive Society Convention.
By mixing the science of ophthalmology and the art of practice management, ophthalmologists can further examine their attitudes toward various aspects of their professional lives, Dr. Shetty said.
“Art and attitude, I think, go hand in hand, and what exactly is our attitude toward our patients, our attitude toward colleagues, our attitude toward our work and our attitude toward life itself?” he asked the audience.
When an ophthalmologist looks at these in the light of spirituality, Dr. Shetty told Ocular Surgery News in a follow-up interview, he or she can find success both in and out of the office.
“I feel it’s a way in which you can have your cake and eat it too,” said Dr. Shetty, the founder and medical director of Narayana Nethralaya. “You can have material success as well as spiritual satisfaction.”
Attitude toward patients
In the changing society of India and global medicine, the ophthalmologist’s attitude toward his or her patients must change and patients should be treated as customers, Dr. Shetty said.
“Gone are the days where a doctor’s word was taken as the gospel truth, absolutely no questions asked,” he said in his presentation. “Now, our patients, they want more. They expect more. They need validation in the form of constant communication. They need service with a smile. They need the least waiting period.”
Patients constantly monitor these aspects today, he said. The traditional services of the physician – diagnosis and treatment – are taken for granted.
“The dynamics in the marketplace have changed from a sellers’ market; it has become a buyers’ market,” he said. “Today’s customer is key and that’s exactly how our patients want to be treated.”
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Images: Shetty K.B |
In his private practice, Dr. Shetty told OSN, practitioners look at the whole patient rather than only his or her physical ailment.
“We try to get to know the patient as a whole, see his problem as a whole and try to understand their anxiety, their worries, more than the problem itself,” he said. “Try to win over the heart and mind of the patient first.
“The happy patient is the best spokesperson, as far as our practice is concerned,” he said. “Most doctors are qualified to do a cataract surgery, but then there are 500 such surgeons in the town. Why should they choose me or choose our institute?”
He said most hospitals fall into a systemic rut, losing the humanity of patient-doctor interaction.
“That human touch is not there,” Dr. Shetty said. “Whereas if somebody comes [to our] hospital, before he comes in, somebody is there in the gate to receive him. ‘Hello, sir. How are you, sir? Can I help you?’ Then he is escorted to the reception or to the doctor.
“It’s a proactive thing,” he said. “We don’t wait for them to ask for something; we ask, ‘Do you need something?’ This is what we try to implement in the hospital so that when you come to the hospital, you see the difference.”
This difference, he said, is what patients will talk about when they discuss their experience with other potential customers. And all of this starts with the head of the practice.
“All of these things automatically happen because once the boss does it, automatically you’ve got a trickle-down effect,” Dr. Shetty said. “If I behave rudely to my patients, then automatically my assistant’s approach will be the same. If I’m friendly with my patients, my assistant can’t be rude.”
Through this mentality, Narayana Nethralaya has greatly expanded, drawing patients from various parts of India and being voted one of the best hospitals in Bangalore. Dr. Shetty’s success has even led him to build another larger office.
“This is our secret: We really and genuinely care for the people who walk in there,” he said.
Attitude toward colleagues
As medical director, Dr. Shetty knows it is important for his ophthalmologists to work together. He said surgeons need to respect one another and work together.
“All these things are just basic, but in practical life, in the hurry and worry and tension, we really don’t think it’s necessary,” he said. “We just keep bulldozing, keep pushing people. We keep standing on them to climb on top. So we are really short-sighted. We don’t feel for others.”
An ophthalmologist’s attitude toward colleagues can be best tested when they approach him or her for a second opinion or a failed surgical outcome, he said. “Sometimes the patients tend to put words into our mouths.”
If that happens, physicians should not get caught in this “trap” of speaking badly about a colleague to the patient. In these situations, there is “absolutely no room for double speak; absolutely no room for double talk,” Dr. Shetty said.
“I am told that most of the [legal] cases in the consumer forum today are because of some loose comments or some of the harsh words used by our own colleagues,” he said.
When talking with OSN, Dr. Shetty elaborated on his management within the office. He said everyone should hold respect for all life, including a blade of grass, but especially one’s colleagues.
“But then when I’m a boss here in my hospital, I have to run the show. I’ve got 200 to 300 employees and 30 to 40 doctors working with us,” he said. “When I play the role of the boss, I play like a boss. Maybe I will criticize. I will say, ‘No, this is right. This is wrong. I want it this way.’ I’ll have to get things done. I will be playing my role.
“The moment I leave the hospital and go home … I play the role of the father and husband,” he said.
Attitude toward work
If one can view work as a type of play, Dr. Shetty said one will reap the benefits of a happier life overall and greater success.
“If you want success, you need to enjoy work,” he said. “You need to find joy in the journey itself. You need to make work your play.”
Dr. Shetty said work is “what you have to do” and play is “what you want to do.” When you actually want to do your work, that is when you begin to enjoy the journey.
“You look forward to the next day. You look forward to meeting new people, putting a smile on their face and seeing the joy on their face,” he said.
Dr. Shetty compared life to a game of golf, where rather than having one ball to be fought over by multiple people, each person has his or her own ball.
“They don’t compete with each other; they’re always competing with themselves,” he said. “That’s exactly how we have to see our work.”
In that competition, Dr. Shetty said money should not be the final goal. Although it is a priority because it helps to evoke change, it is not the top priority in his life.
“It will be secondary for us,” he said. “Money should be like a shadow. It should follow you. If you chase it, you’ll never catch it. It’s not a primary end. A primary end is a happy patient and everything will follow.”
Attitude toward life
One’s total attitude toward life must be one of positive thinking and dreaming, Dr. Shetty said.
“We should all be aware that success and failure are just two sides of the same coin,” he said. “We should not let success go to our heads or take failure to heart.”
When something goes wrong, ophthalmologists and people in general should not consider it a failure, Dr. Shetty said. The inability to achieve is not necessarily failure, but “failure to get up and get through it is failure.”
To get through even the hardest times, people must learn to “think positive and dream big,” he said.
“Everything is possible if you have two of these things,” he said, adding that people must not be impatient to see the results of a positive outlook and big dreams.
“These principles do work. On the face of it, in the short term, you may find it difficult,” he said. “What you sow today, you reap tomorrow. You can’t sow today and reap today.”
Dr. Shetty himself put more than a decade into his original practice before expanding with another building more than four times the original’s size.
“It’s a simple thing,” he said. “If you put it into practice, you really stand to gain. You will enjoy yourself. You will have material benefit. You’ll have a fantastic practice. Plus, you’ll be a happy man at the end of the day.
“Last, but not least, let’s not forget this. We need to be a good human being. Show me a good human being and I will show you love,” Dr. Shetty said. “We need to put others before ourselves. If we can apply these statutes, it is possible to achieve everything.”
For more information:
- K. Bhujang Shetty, MBBS, MS, can be reached at Narayana Nethralaya, 121/C Chord Road, Rajajinagar, 1st ‘R’ Block, Bangalore 560010; +91-80-2337-3311; fax: +91-80-2337-7329; e-mail: info@nerayananethralaya.com; Web site: www.narayananethralaya.com.