I know a lot about doctors and doctoring. I spent the last 35 years working with them. After a while you pick up a thing or two. I don’t know much about mechanics. At least that’s what I thought. But it turns out that mechanics, or more correctly automotive technicians, are a lot like doctors and patients and repair shop customers have a lot in common too.
A few observations about doctors and doctoring. You, the patient, call up your doctor with an ailment. You say something like, “doctor my head aches and it won’t stop hurting”. In doctor world that’s called a chief complaint. “Hmmm”, the doctor says with a sincere look on her face and then asks a few questions. By this time, your headache is worse because you have already answered these questions on the form and then repeated your answers for the medical assistant, but you patiently repeat yourself. This is why you are called the patient. “How long have you had this headache? When did it start? Where exactly does it hurt? How intense is the pain on a scale of one to ten?” This is what doctors call the History of Present Illness (HPI). It is probably the most important part of your visit because it helps the doctor figure out what might be causing your headache. There are 17 types of headaches and some of them are signs that really bad things are happening so asking the right questions is very important. Your answers give the doctor an idea of what to do next. This is step one of a process that doctors call S.O.A.P.. S stands for Subjective.
Once you’ve given the doctor your subjective impression of what ails you, she is ready to get some Objective data. Hence the “O”. This part involves poking and prodding, stethoscoping and light shining and blood pressure taking along with orders for labs and other tests like CAT Scans and MRI’s and whatnot.
When the labs come back, and the MRI is interpreted the doctor is ready to put the “A” in the SOAP and give you an Assessment of what’s going on. The doctor is going to pick one of those 17 types of headache and explain it to you. There are plenty of jokes about this part of the process. “Well Hector, I have some good news and bad news for you.”
Finally, we get down to the very last step. What’s the Plan Stan? What are we going to do about your headache? SOAP. Subjective, Objective, Assessment and Plan. That’s all there is too it. Your doctor uses this simple process to apply 12 years or more of medical training to your situation and come up with a diagnosis and a treatment plan. On average doctors spend about 12 minutes with patients in the exam room figuring this out.
Well your automotive technician is like your doctor. You show up at the shop complaining of clinking or banging or smoking. Often times that dreaded engine light is burning a bright red. Sometimes your vehicle shows up in our version of the ambulance, i.e. the tow truck because she gave up the ghost on the road. The process your automotive technician follows is the same one that doctors use. He listens to your Subjective description of what is going on. This can be amusing as the customer attempts to mimic the noise that is coming from under the hood. Then he pops the hood and does his version of poking and prodding and then he does a test.
The test is simple. He plugs your car into a computer that talks to the computer in your car. That conversation between machines results in a code that allows the car to tell him the equivalent of where it hurts. Now he knows what test to do to confirm the diagnosis.
Sometimes the problems and the solutions are obvious. We’ve all had them. Water-pump, Alternator Dysfunction and Oil Leakage are among the common ailments. Other things are not so obvious. This is when your automotive technician has one up on your doctor. He has a computer application with a vast database of ailments covering every make and model of car. We’ll talk more about that next time. For now, you can rest assured that Ted and his crew have the tools they need to keep you on the road no matter what you’re driving.
Don Cushing is an owner of Ocean Street Auto Repair