By all means keep the girl stenographers out of sight, and do not let the male patients know that a woman ever saw their letters, or the doctor’s replies to those letters. Adopt exactly the opposite tactics with women patients—keep the man stenographer under cover.
Despite the utmost care there will be times when the patients will get together in the waiting room and discuss the doctor and his methods, the merits or demerits of the treatment, compare fees, etc. One dissatisfied patient—and every physician has them, no matter how generally successful he may be—can create more disturbance and uneasiness in ten minutes than the doctor can overcome in a week.
It is right here that the reception room girl has a chance to prove her worth. When she finds the conversation drifting into disagreeable channels she can adroitly step in and change the subject without seeming to have a purpose in doing so. The introduction of a timely topic by a bright, entertaining woman will start the flow of talk in a new direction and in the discussion that follows criticism of the doctor will be overlooked.
One day a chronic kicker, one of those fellows who is never satisfied no matter how much is being done for him, met another patient in the reception room and began to find fault with the treatment. Without seeming to listen to the conversation, and with her mind apparently engrossed on some other topic, the attendant said:
“Oh my, how I wish I had a brother or a father to advise me.”
“Why, what’s the trouble?” very naturally enquired one of the patients—and he happened to be the “kicker.”
The girl went to relate an entirely suppositious occurrence over which she pretended to be badly wrought up; a business entanglement with a concern from which she had bought some goods on the installment plan, and about which there was a serious misunderstanding. Both men were profuse in their tenders of advice, and in their desire to be of assistance to the girl they forgot entirely the original topic. The girl kept them engaged in conversation until the “kicker” departed, and the danger was over for that day, at least.
She reported the matter to the doctor and the latter very cleverly arranged the “kicker’s” hours for treatment so there would be little chance of his finding other patients in the office.