title: Customer service vs patient care.
abstract: Though hospital administrators may impose a customer satisfaction mandate, it need not alter the status of "patients" redefined as "customers." It is the duty of all health care providers to remember that the practice of medicine is not chiefly a business and is not purely a science. In its mission is the art of encouraging the individuality of each provider of medical care to interact with the individuality of his/her patients. The medical profession in antiquity was linked with religion and the treating physician with special acquired knowledge and clinical experience was often able to accomplish a "miracle" when TLC (tender loving care) was the essential element of medical practice. If TLC is reintroduced into 21st century medical practice, "customer satisfaction" will be the result rather than the goal of medical care.
authors.affiliation: Chemical Dependency Treatment Program, VA Central California Health Care System, University of California, San Francisco Medical School, Medical Education Program, Fresno, California, USA.
authors.forename: Hani Raoul
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Khouzam
mesh_terms: D003258:Consumer Behavior; D006801:Humans; D005791:Patient Care / Q000592:standards*; D011787:Quality of Health Care