A call to action for leaders in healthcare and patient experience to develop a strategy to address how we can help physicians and APCs of different generations and levels of experience feel valued and recapture or sustain the joy of medical practice.
“Hello, my name is…”
It takes only a few seconds to utter these words. It costs nothing. This straightforward, undemanding phrase can set the stage for a warm, personal relationship between two human beings: caregiver and patient.
And yet how often do we neglect to say them? How many of us launch into medical explanations and instructions without giving the patient the courtesy of knowing who is delivering the (often difficult or frightening) news?
I was recently speaking to a roomful of physicians about communication skills that promote patient engagement. Not five minutes after I began, one physician exclaimed, “I hope you’re going to talk about how impossible it is to engage patients when you have to use the EHR!” A groundswell of his colleagues responded, “Yes, yes, yes!”
There is no question that dealing with a tech device like the Electronic Health Records while talking with a patient is challenging. But the EHR doesn’t have to interfere with patient-physician conversations, nor does it need to impede patient engagement or negatively affect the patient experience.
I recently learned from a colleague about an important study documenting the benefits of caring communication. Empirical proof of what Language of Caring has been saying for years!
Research published in Management Science and summarized in the Harvard Business Review shows that, when combined with high-quality medical care, “…communication between caregivers and patients has the largest impact on reducing readmissions.” While many health care organizations try to raise their HCAHPS scores by investing in expensive technologies, infrastructure, and luxury amenities to improve patient satisfaction, they would benefit more from focusing on communication!
