We’ve all heard stories about rock bands and their rather excessive tour riders. In her tour rider, Madonna, for example, requires a brand new loo seat at every venue, whereas Iggy Pop’s stipulates “a copy of USA Today that’s got a story about morbidly obese people in it”. Some of these stories have the added flavour of being associated with dressing-room tantrums, like Van Halen’s, who’s rider demanded “a bowl of M&Ms, with all the brown ones taken out”. On at least one occasion, the band’s lead singer, David Lee Roth, trashed his dressing room on going back stage and finding a brown M&M.
So does any of this type of behaviour have an impact on being a GP, and why would this be something I’m about to recommend all GPs do?
Firstly, I’m not in any way going to suggest that trashing our consultation rooms on finding a used speculum is something that any of us should do, but I am going to recommend we adopt Roth’s approach to what in the tech industry is often referred to as operations signaling or, in our field, patient and professional safety.