Effective Patient Communication
Today, more than ever healthcare relies on a team approach. Gone are the days of individual practitioners providing care for individual patients. Today, more than ever healthcare relies on a team approach. Healthcare facilities are made up of teams of caregivers, including physicians, nurses, and many ancillary staff. In order to provide the highest level of care to individuals, there must be effective clear communication across the entire continuum of care. Now more than ever, patients have become an intricate part of the health care delivery system. It is therefore paramount that there is effective communication between not only healthcare providers but between of care providers and the patient. Studies have shown that when patients are involved in their care, the quality of their care increases.
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Is therefore very important that there is effective communication with patients and that there is clear understanding of all aspects of the treatment process.
This has been shown to be beneficial in areas such as consent for procedures, discharge instructions, and follow-up for care. Patient understanding promotes increased compliance, which ultimately results in improvement in patient
care. Better communication from the hospital staff and caregivers promotes not only higher quality care, but through more effective communication patient’s perceive they have received better care and their patient experienced is enhanced. Similarly communication between providers also promotes a feeling of high quality care and an increased improvement in the patient experienced. For example, many hospitals are not using bedside reports. Where one nurse gives sign out report to another nurse at the bedside with the patient present. This allows the patient to have an understanding as to his or her treatment process and interject comments and concerns that would be beneficial to their care. This type of rounding not only provides effective communication between patients and providers allows the patient to feel that they aren’t intricate part of the process in her receiving the best of care. By increasing the patient’s experience, the hospital also benefits as the facility notes an improvement in its approval ratings. This improvement in patient’s satisfaction results in increased referrals to doctors and facilities and ultimately an increase in revenue. Today patient’s satisfaction is a reading indicator being measured by the joint commission and CMS which are now being directly connected to Hospital reimbursement is through the value based purchasing system. As Hall noted (2008) “those hospitals that provide the best care and have the highest patient satisfaction.”
Conversely the lack of communication results in poor patient’s satisfaction with a significant decrease in quality of care. Beyond the perceived lack of coordination of care, poor communication does have actual and significant negative impacts on patients. Patients who do not have a good understanding of the discharge instructions have been shown to have a higher increase in readmission rates. Noncompliance with medications is often due to a lack of communication between providers and patient’s. This can result in the patient not understanding the correct way to take the medication or the lack of a provider understanding of the social circumstances of the patient, which may prohibit them from obtaining the medication for various social or financial constraints. Lack of communication between providers, is the leading cause of medical errors. It is been noted by Van Den Bosal (2017) that medical errors costs the US healthcare system over $17.1 Billion annually. Effective communication can drastically reduce such errors. Communication errors can stem from poor medical documentation and/or failure to effectively relay information from one practitioner to another. These breaches in effective communication can result in significant medical errors which to a patient can be costly not only a health standpoint but also can result in loss of time from work and income, small to severe disability, and increased pain and suffering. From a hospital standpoint errors that are a results of poor communication are costly with regard to increased length of stay, decreased reimbursement for hospital-acquired conditions (HAC), increased uses of viable resources, and malpractice litigation. For this reason many hospitals have established protocols to improve communication. This includes basic minimums with regard to documentation in the medical record, which includes the importance of legibility as well as appropriate information including medication reconciliation and documentation of allergies and pre-existing conditions. There has been increased emphasis on the use of affected communications. Some of these initiatives include implementing communication using closed-loop feedback in which information is restated when being passed from one individual to another to ensure effective communication and the importance of clarification and asking questions when the listener does not have a full understanding as to what the Speaker is relaying.
Effective communication is key to safe and quality care. Failure to communicate is costly to both patients and providers, while effective communication results in improved quality care with cost savings and increased revenue.
Is therefore very important that there is effective communication with patients and that there is clear understanding of all aspects of the treatment process.
This has been shown to be beneficial in areas such as consent for procedures, discharge instructions, and follow-up for care. Patient understanding promotes increased compliance, which ultimately results in improvement in patient
care. Better communication from the hospital staff and caregivers promotes not only higher quality care, but through more effective communication patient’s perceive they have received better care and their patient experienced is enhanced. Similarly communication between providers also promotes a feeling of high quality care and an increased improvement in the patient experienced. For example, many hospitals are not using bedside reports. Where one nurse gives sign out report to another nurse at the bedside with the patient present. This allows the patient to have an understanding as to his or her treatment process and interject comments and concerns that would be beneficial to their care. This type of rounding not only provides effective communication between patients and providers allows the patient to feel that they aren’t intricate part of the process in her receiving the best of care. By increasing the patient’s experience, the hospital also benefits as the facility notes an improvement in its approval ratings. This improvement in patient’s satisfaction results in increased referrals to doctors and facilities and ultimately an increase in revenue. Today patient’s satisfaction is a reading indicator being measured by the joint commission and CMS which are now being directly connected to Hospital reimbursement is through the value based purchasing system. As Hall noted (2008) “those hospitals that provide the best care and have the highest patient satisfaction.”
Conversely the lack of communication results in poor patient’s satisfaction with a significant decrease in quality of care. Beyond the perceived lack of coordination of care, poor communication does have actual and significant negative impacts on patients. Patients who do not have a good understanding of the discharge instructions have been shown to have a higher increase in readmission rates. Noncompliance with medications is often due to a lack of communication between providers and patient’s. This can result in the patient not understanding the correct way to take the medication or the lack of a provider understanding of the social circumstances of the patient, which may prohibit them from obtaining the medication for various social or financial constraints. Lack of communication between providers, is the leading cause of medical errors. It is been noted by Van Den Bosal (2017) that medical errors costs the US healthcare system over $17.1 Billion annually. Effective communication can drastically reduce such errors. Communication errors can stem from poor medical documentation and/or failure to effectively relay information from one practitioner to another. These breaches in effective communication can result in significant medical errors which to a patient can be costly not only a health standpoint but also can result in loss of time from work and income, small to severe disability, and increased pain and suffering. From a hospital standpoint errors that are a results of poor communication are costly with regard to increased length of stay, decreased reimbursement for hospital-acquired conditions (HAC), increased uses of viable resources, and malpractice litigation. For this reason many hospitals have established protocols to improve communication. This includes basic minimums with regard to documentation in the medical record, which includes the importance of legibility as well as appropriate information including medication reconciliation and documentation of allergies and pre-existing conditions. There has been increased emphasis on the use of affected communications. Some of these initiatives include implementing communication using closed-loop feedback in which information is restated when being passed from one individual to another to ensure effective communication and the importance of clarification and asking questions when the listener does not have a full understanding as to what the Speaker is relaying.
Effective communication is key to safe and quality care. Failure to communicate is costly to both patients and providers, while effective communication results in improved quality care with cost savings and increased revenue.