One of the nice things about solo office practice is occasionally being able to have one of my (or my staff members’) kids at the office. This isn’t, by any means, something I do often. But my wife’s job won’t allow her to have kids there, so when they’re too sick to go to school it comes down to one of us either staying home or me taking them to my office.
It actually works out pretty well. There’s an unused back office where they can set up shop, and the modern world is full of portable electronic gadgets to keep them busy. I can’t hear them from my office, and they can’t hear what’s said in my office.
What surprises me are the patients who find this upsetting. My kids know not to come out of there if I have a patient, and the only time a patient even knows a child is there is if they wander down the hall to use the bathroom or get something out of the refrigerator. And in my practice, I rarely see immune-suppressed patients.
In spite of this, I’ve had 5-10 patients in the last 10 years complain about it, always on the grounds that it "isn’t professional." Three patients have left the practice because of it. Not surprisingly, none of them had kids of their own.
I still don’t understand this. I have to see doctors myself, and the rare time I notice a child in the office I think nothing of it.
Granted, many of us don’t have the luxury of doing this. But when it’s possible, I have no issues with it at all. I’d rather have a doctor who is concerned enough to bring his kids to work rather than leave them at home alone.