How to eliminate disrespect in healthcare

by Anthony Cirillo R-E-S-P-E-C-T. While that's Aretha's line, it would seem to one Harvard professor that its opposite--disrespect--is the systemic cause of problems in hospitals. Lucian Leape, adjunct professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health, was cited in a recent article saying disrespect is the reason why so many patients leave the emergency room, why staff is "demoralized" and why medical errors persist. In the journal Academic Medicine, Leape and his co-authors outlined six categories of disrespect, the final one being systemic disrespect that's baked into the profession. Meanwhile, in other recent news, Press Ganey reported that hospitals that perform well on patient experience measures also have lower 30-day readmission rates and are least likely to receive a substantial readmission penalty. The conclusion there was that better communication at discharge, therefore a better patient experience and a better lasting impression, help people both rate the hospital better and follow discharge instructions. Going back to Leape, isn't disrespect manifested most in how we communicate with one another? So perhaps at the end of the day, communication is the key issue and the solution to all of our healthcare issues. But I am not talking about teaching people how to communicate or scripting them to speak a certain way. I think communication training sometimes covers over an inherent problem in healthcare, namely, lack of compassion. As I wrote ...
Source: hospital impact - Category: Health Managers Authors: Source Type: blogs