Communication in healthcare

The Aim
The aim of the every healthcare professional is to provide care that is patient centered and shared in a partnership with the patient.
The basis of such care is good communication between a patient and the professional.
Effective communication develops the trust and produces better outcomes.
The effective skills in healthcare communication are learnable.

Patient centered communicaion
Such communication means discovering and connecting both the biomedical facts in detail and the patient’s ideas and feelings.
It is essential for diagnosis and appropriate management, the trust and the involvement of the patient.
The traditional approach “doctor knows best” without patient’s involvement is now outdated.
The change of approaches is to improve health outcome and it is spreading world wide.

Reasons
There are 2 main reasons for the change
Patients expect information about their condition and treatment and want doctors to take their opinions into account. They like to be involved.
Patients expect humanity and empathy from their doctors as well as competence.

Benefits
Improved health outcomes
Increased patient adherence to therapies
Reduces litigation
Improved time management and costs
Patient safety

Failures
54% of complaints and 45% of concerns were not elicited
50% of psychological problems not elicited
80% of breast cancer patients’ concerns remain undisclosed
In 50% of visits, patients and doctors disagree on the main problem
In 50% of cases, patient’s history was blocked by interruption within 24 seconds

Improvements after the course
Pain control
Headache relief
Blood pressure control
Diabetic control
Asthma control
Emotional health
Symptom resolution
Function improvement

Barriers and difficulties