At some point in our life, each of us has been a patient in a medical practice. Perhaps you have been one recently and memories are fresh. Being a patient helps us appreciate what our patients are experiencing and gain the insight needed to ask some fairly fundamental questions, such as:

• Why are patients and their families here?
• How do they feel?
• What do they want?
• What do we want to give them?

At a basic level, I would think that our patients are here because they believe we can help them with their medical issues. And, what a great honor it is to help someone with such an important thing. Our health and well-being are precious things indeed.

Our new tagline for our marketing is, “We are more than doctors. We are experts.” Additionally a supporting statement being used in Texas Tech Physicians marketing is, “Taking care of you is more than what we do. It’s who we are.” These phrases encapsulate what we are trying to do. By providing expert care in our specialty (including primary care) we will earn people’s trust. By the way, expertise is not limited to our excellent faculty. No, we can be an expert on, for example, how to check-in a patient, how to assist a patient secure third-party coverage, and in how to arrange follow-up care for a patient. And, of course, all of us can become experts in caring.

Trust is generally earned by keeping our word. It means seeing the patient on time. Returning their phone calls when we said we would. Even answering the phone – the person calling trusts that we will answer it promptly. Checking for messages sent to us via the patient portal is another way to earn trust. Thinking back to our own patient experiences, it was nice when someone said, “I’ll call this prescription in for you,” and when we went to pick it up, it was there. That’s trust producing!

So, I would suspect the answer to what people want from Texas Tech Physicians runs something like this: they want to be respected, they want convenience and they want to feel better! These are all things that we are capable of providing to our patients. Things that we want to provide our patients. Finally, a little not-so-secret secret: these are also the things that will make us a top-tier practice in the nation.