Dr. Joshi notes that the Joint Commission has found that ”communication failure (rather than a provider’s lack of technical skill) was at the root of over 70 percent of serious adverse health outcomes in hospitals.”
”{O}ne survey found, two out of every three patients are discharged from the hospital without even knowing their diagnosis. Another study discovered that in over 60 percent of cases, patients misunderstood directions after a visit to their doctor’s office. And on average, physicians wait just 18 seconds before interrupting patients’ narratives of their symptoms.”
Dr. J0shi describes started a program that he and his colleagues started to improve doctors’ communication with their patients at Pinnacle.
They developed a physician-training program, which, he writes in The Times, ”involved mock patient interviews and assessment from {an} actor role-playing the patient. Over 250 physicians were trained using this technique. We also arranged for a ‘physician coach’ to sit in on real patient interviews and provide feedback.”
And it helped a lot, as his op-ed explains.
