If there is a diagnosis you are calling the patient with that is unexpected, life-changing, like a cancer, or has a treatment plan — the person caring for the patient should be the one calling them.
This is a question I got after stitching a video of a patient whose biopsy results — along with a treatment plan — were relayed to her by a nurse in the clinic. I don't want this to be controversial, because practices do this differently and there's no single right or wrong way. But I do have a strong personal opinion on it, and I think it's worth sharing.
When a biopsy result is unexpected or requires a treatment plan, the person calling the patient should be the one providing their care — not just a nursing staff member relaying information.
Here's why, and here's what a good call should actually include.
I have no issue with nursing staff calling a patient with a normal or benign biopsy result — something that doesn't require any further intervention or follow-up. That's the majority of biopsy results, and it's reasonable clinic workflow.
That call is short, positive, and reassuring: "Your results are normal. No further action needed."
When the result is:
...that call should come from the physician, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant taking care of that patient.
These calls aren't just about relaying a piece of information. They're about making sure the patient understands what they're being told — and the person making the call needs to be able to answer follow-up questions in real time, explain the why behind the plan, and guide the patient through what happens next.
When that doesn't happen, patients often end up in a much worse place: confused by a diagnosis they don't understand, and left alone with Google as their only source of answers. That rarely ends well.
If you're a clinician making one of these calls — or you're a patient wondering what you should expect from one — these are the three elements that should always be covered:
Tell the patient what the diagnosis is, and why you believe that based on the results. Something like: "Based on your biopsy results, we believe your diagnosis is [X]. Here's what we see in the pathology that tells us that."
The "why" matters. It helps the patient trust the result, and it grounds the conversation that follows.
This is the section that is most often skipped — and it's the section patients need the most. A prescription number on a pharmacy voicemail isn't enough.
Without this, patients are left in limbo, not sure whether their next visit is in a week, a month, or three months.
The scenario I see far too often in my area is this:
The patient is then left to piece together their own understanding from the internet, which — for anything cancer-related or serious — is going to send most people into a tailspin.
Whenever I call a patient with a diagnosis, my goal is that they walk away from the conversation clear on:
That's it. Four things. But without all four, patients are left doing unnecessary mental work during one of the most vulnerable moments of their lives.
Nursing staff relaying normal results is fine. But when a biopsy comes back with something unexpected, a treatment plan, or a cancer diagnosis — that call should come from the physician, NP, or PA who is caring for that patient, and it should cover the diagnosis, the plan, and the follow-up clearly. Patients deserve to understand what's happening to them — and that only works when the person calling them is equipped to actually have the conversation.