Responsibilities and requisites of doctors applying for a partenship job at DHMC or hired in partenrhip post DHMC:

There are TWO TYPES of responsibilities/requisites that are required by health care professionals who initiate and run clinics at KEPRC:

1. LEVEL 1: MANDATORY REQUISITES THAT WIll NEVER BE COMPROMISED AT DHMC.

2. LEVEL 2: NON-MANDATORY REQUISITES: OPTIONAL

1. LEVEL I: MANDATORY REQUISITES AND RESPONSITILIBITIES:

The following is a list of mandatory responsibilities that are expected of all healthcare professionals as they form an important cornerstone for the provision of a high-quality medical service at DHMC. Kindly, do not compromise them under any circumstances.

1.1 PUNCTUALITY AND AVAILABILITY:

1.1.1 Punctuality:

Punctuality of doctors in the Middle Eastern culture in general is rather poor. In fact, it has become such an embarrassment to any medical facility keen on providing a quality service to its patients. In a truly decent practice, there is no excuse that doctors give appointments to their patients and then keep them waiting for hours. For that reason, and in order to provide the most convenient chances for doctors to be punctual, the procedure of setting doctor schedules and booking patient appointments in those schedules has been designed as follows:

Number 1: Doctors will choose, at their convenience, the days of the week that are most suitable for them to have their clinics at DHMC and will choose the exact hours, on those days, when they like their duty to start and to end. It is strongly advisable to always give enough space and flexibility for traffic conditions in Cairo. For example, if you finish your duty at Cairo University Hospitals at 1 PM, and plan to start your clinic at DHMC after the university, it is better to plan the start of your duty after 2 or even 2:30 PM and not 1:30 PM.

Number 2: Since patient visits at DHMC are always booked in advance by the call center, doctors are not required to be at their clinics if they don’t have any appointments booked. The call center will call the doctors at least 1 day before their clinic day to inform them of their appointments and their exact times. Each booked patient slot is 30 minutes if it’s a new patient (unless the doctor advises to increase to more) and each booked patient follow up visit slot is 15 minutes (unless the doctor advises to increase to more in certain situations/patients)

1.1.2 Ability of DHMC call center to contact the doctors:

Number 1: If the doctor will be travelling or will not be available to come to DHMC for any reason for a few days or a couple of weeks, DHMC will appreciate that he/she calls the call center to inform them of his/her absence so that they do not book any appointments during that time.

Number 2: Reaching doctors: It is very important that each doctor will provide the call center at DHMC with the mobile number that the call center can use to reach them easily to inform them of any appointments or to inquire from them about any services that their clinics are providing (based on patient inquiries to the call center). Those phone numbers will never be given to any patient unless the doctor gives permission or advises to do so. We all understand that doctors can be busy to answer calls at the time when their phone rings but at the same time, we all know that anyone can make a return call to their work or reply back to an important sms within a few hours. A pattern of always failing to get through to a doctor for more than 2 whole days for example will affect the performance of the doctor’s clinic and also the entire image of DHMC in a very negative way. If the call center fails to reach a doctor (fails = cannot get in touch with the doctor for more than 12 hours) to inform him/her or confirm an appointment the next day, the patient appointment will be automatically cancelled for the doctor.

1.1.3 Availability of doctors for online patient consultations: 

DHMC patients can make their consultations with doctors online without having to come to the clinic each time. Those electronic consultations are either free consultations that are accessory to the clinic’s visit or paid consultations that are new follow up consultations. DHMC has the complete setup for running the online consultations system between patients and their doctors. Doctors will need to provide DHMC staff with the time frame for their response to the patients’ consultations and will be kindly expected to abide by those time frames that they set for their online clinics.

1.2 RAPPORT AND EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION WITH PATIENTS:

Good rapport and effective communication with patients are an integral part of patient management in decent medical practice. Doctors at DHMC are kindly invited to attend the course titled “Communication Skills for Effective Doctor-Patient Relationship” that is regularly provided by Dr. Hatem Eleishi at the lecture room at DHMC or at other organizations as well.

Note: It is important to note here that effective communication with patients is not only about what doctors say and what doctors do. It is also by how doctors look. Dressing professionally (wearing a clean ironed gown or professional business attire) and being neatly groomed and, for men, making sure they have a fresh shave, are important parts of the positive communication doctors make with their patients. This conveys to patients a message of honesty, credibility and professionalism about their treating doctors.

1.3 PATIENT EDUCATION:

Educating patients about their disease is not a privilege that DHMC is providing to patients. It’s just a basic patient right that the patient is entitled to. The reason why we stress on it is that, sadly enough, the cultural norm in the field of medical practice deprived so many patients of that basic right and, at the same time, so many patients accepted this lack of education about their disease as part of a normal behavior and way of treatment they get from their doctors. It is important that at the end of each patient’s consultation that the patient’s answer to the routine doctor’s question “Is there anything else that you like to ask about or do you have any questions on your mind?” should be NO.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Failing to abide by and fulfill the mandatory requisites will comprise the mission of DHMC, the reason why DHMC exists and will also affect the reputation of DHMC that is now already known for professionalism, punctuality, respect and good treatment of patients. It will adversely affect the practice of your colleagues in other clinics at DHMC who are keen on implementing the above-described practices. That is why DHMC requires that you kindly abide by those requisites. 

2. LEVEL 2: OTHER NON-MANDATORY RESPONSILIBITIES:

1. Providing the marketing department at DHMC with educational articles in Arabic and in English about the topics in your specialty that are of public interest so that they can publish them on DHMC website and on social media channels to promote your clinic at DHMC.

2. Making it a regular practice to prepare lectures for video shooting at DHMC’s studio (frequency is according to your schedule and your convenience and your agreement with the marketing staff working on your marketing campaign). Those videos will be very effective in the promotion of your clinic at DHMC and of you as a doctor in your specialty whether at DHMC or anywhere else.

3. Providing recent high-resolution photos of yourself that are suitable for the internet pages of DHMC.

4. Providing the marketing department at DHMC with information about upcoming conferences that you will be attending or talks you will be giving or any scientific activities that you will be part of. Such news will be used to still promote your clinic on face book and on DHMC website

NOTE: It is solely up to the healthcare professional to fulfill LEVEL 2 requisites. However, it is important to note that giving LEVEL 2 requisites consideration will contribute a great promotion to your clinic at DHMC.