The phrase very important person (VIP) describes the elevated social status afforded to influential and prestigious members of society, including politicians (at any level of government), executives of major companies, celebrities, and other prominent individuals. Over the course of a career, many ophthalmologists will encounter patients who are considered VIPs for one reason or another. If managed ethically and effectively, your relationships with these VIP patients can offer downstream benefits to your practice or academic institution in the form of a bolstered reputation, practice growth, and increased research funding, to name a few.

Let me be clear, however, that when you encounter VIPs in ophthalmic practice, you should treat them as you would anyone else. Don’t get distracted or diverted by the VIP’s status. Think clearly, be relaxed, and stay within the standard of care. Doing so will ensure that every treatment decision is made with the patient’s best interest in mind and not influenced—for better or for worse—by the patient’s status as a VIP.

Avoid VIP Syndrome

VIP syndrome refers to the special treatment afforded to VIPs in most aspects of life. This special treatment must not extend to a VIP’s medical care. When doctors allow a VIP patient’s broader social status to influence medical decision-making, the consequences can be dire.

Poor medical decision-making due to a patient’s VIP status has been linked to the deaths of a number of celebrities—Prince, Michael Jackson, and Joan Rivers, to name a few (for more on how VIP syndrome influenced their deaths, see the accompanying sidebar). This is why it’s so important to get out of the mindset of caring about this person’s status and rather to simply treat them the same way you would treat anyone else who walked in with the same eye problem.

It’s okay to roll out the red carpet, so to speak. Make sure the office is clean. Don’t make the VIP wait too long, if at all, in the office. Offer preferential appointment scheduling to accommodate the VIP’s schedule. And of course it’s natural for your own behavior to change in the presence of someone you find intimidating or exciting for some reason. The point is to be aware of this, so that your delivery of health care to the VIP patient is no different from your delivery of health care to any other patient.

Leveraging VIPs?

I don’t feel comfortable asking a VIP patient for a status-related favor such as doing any kind of marketing for your practice or academic institution, especially not at the outset of your relationship. The patient owes us nothing, so to ask them for something self-serving can cross lines both ethically and morally. That being said, if the VIP patient does something without solicitation that elevates your practice’s name, visibility, or credibility, it can be of great value to embrace it.

Personal Experience

I have been fortunate to have high-profile patients make unsolicited public comments about their experience in my care. Comments such as this, once they are out there, can be leveraged to bolster the credibility or name recognition of a practice. In my situation, in an academic setting, these comments all served the greater good of the department.

Public comments by a VIP patient who has public reach and influence raise the profile of the entire department, thereby potentially increasing funding. Weill Cornell Medicine has successfully leveraged the positive public comments and various media appearances I’ve generated for promotional use on social media and in other places, and these types of endorsements can be extremely effective tools.

Conclusion

Take caution when treating VIPs. Avoid asking for outright favors, especially while your relationship is strictly in a doctor-patient capacity. Any boost you may get as a result of treating the VIP should come only as a secondary benefit, reaped only because you have done your job well as the patient’s doctor.