My op-ed was published yesterday in the Nashua Telegraph: What we have in health care today is a failure to communicate.
Here’s an excerpt:
Communication in medicine grows worse by the day. What should be a pillar of quality health care is instead a resounding failure.Patients are rushed through office visits and often leave without having their questions answered. Labyrinthine barriers have to be overcome before speaking with a physician. Reaching a medical provider via the Internet is an impossibly daunting task. Doctors rarely talk to each other to coordinate treatment plans.
With appointments packing schedules in 15-minute increments, physicians report there is not enough time to conduct an appropriate office visit. This is to the patient’s detriment, as studies show that the public adequately understands their doctor’s instructions only half of the time. In today’s digital age, one should ideally be able to e-mail or instant message their providers to ask follow-up questions.
This infrequently happens, as Medicare and private insurers rarely pay for electronic communication. A physician who repeatedly handles patient requests outside of an office visit will lose money, contributing to the reluctance of the medical community to embrace the Internet.
Related posts:
- Op-ed: What we have in health care today is a failure to communicate
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- My take: Patient tips, questioning tests
- Should you give patients their office notes?
- Are we underusing aldosterone antagonists in congestive heart failure patients?
- Consumerism and health quality
{ 6 comments }
Thank you for this. I have been feeling for some time now that the healthcare system is in trouble; primarily related to poor communication and follow through. I know most physicians,nurses and other health care associates are overwhelmed. It is no question, our system is in dire need of some resuscitation.
nancyb
http://www.ericksonblog.com/blog
eMail your lawyer, get an answer, get a bill for the time, based on 10 minute intervals.
eMail your doc. get a long response, pay nothing.
The failure of communication was beautifully written about in the 1970s by Jay Katz MD, JD. The Silent World of Doctor- Patient. He focused on Informed Consent, a legal concept but it was a springboard for the discussion of professionalism and paternalism.
I began the book quite skeptical that patients COULD be informed about the nuances and risks of the treatments offered. And I came to realize that such thinking(paternalism) was the basis for the poor communication.
I agree with Kevin about the failure to communicate. I just dispute the immediacy of the issue. We, as a profession, have clearly communicated to our young enrollees(students) that WE value procedures above communication. So if we are to improve communication WE must value it. Not just order the imaging test or the scope…
Pardon the newbie (and probably too vague) question,
but why won’t insurance companies reimburse for time spent with a patient when not in the office (ie telephone and email consultations)? Is it a red-tape thing, insurance companies afraid of folks bilking the system, or what? From the outside looking in. it looks like the issue is squarely in the insurance companies court…
Communication is such a critical issue on so many levels in healthcare. One of my pet concerns is patient-caregiver communication, and how to improve it, especially at the end of life, when it’s so important for patients for doctors and others to really listen to what their patients want. To that end, if any of you live near Worcester, MA, there will be a fascinating panel discussion on Thursday, May 13 at the Hilton Garden Inn, “Compassionate and Effective Communications at the End of Life:
Overcoming Barriers.” For more information, check out:
http://www.theschwartzcenter.org/events/index.html.
an ‘up and coming’ ortho guy in my community told my wife she could go to any of their five clinics for a knee immobilizer. She chose the one where he practices. The next thing she’s making a check for her co-pay, and sees him. When we read the pt notes, he said she was complaining, and finally demanded to have analysis and care! Wrong! She only came in for an immobilizer! To say the least, this guy is mud!
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