Government regulations come and go. Medical science evolves. But truths about good communication, while the mediums may vary, both stand the test of time and require constant practice. A few weeks ago, I offered three suggestions for effective communication. The next three may sound obvious but can require a bit more conscious effort than some of us realize.
- Convey respect. It should be a given that healthcare professionals speak to patients and one another with respect, but remember that the intention of the speaker and impression of the listener are two different things. The most prevalent example of inadvertent offensiveness is in the use of "elderspeak," or talking to older adults as though they are children. For the record, kids understand just fine when spoken to in a normal voice, too. I encourage health professionals to use easier-to-understand terminology with everyone, or at least define words as they go, but there's no need to do so with an even mildly condescending tone. Of course, body language matters as well. Even if a patient is a bit unsteady walking, for example, it's important to avoid hovering over an adult as if they might topple over or dart into traffic at any second.
- Offer the benefit of the doubt. If there's one widespread habit I'd like to see medical office employees break, it's getting defensive before being given a reason (it's unprofessional to get snippy in response to someone else's bad attitude, too, but doing so preemptively is especially egregious). The most common example I see of this problem is in the misguided execution of informing patients when a doctor is running behind schedule. The objective of sharing this information is to help ease patients' frustration, not fuel it by telling people upon check-in, "Well, there are three people ahead of you, so you'll need to sit down for a while." There are a myriad of less-loaded ways to say this. I have visited one office that used a white board in the reception area to indicate whether each provider was on time or running a certain number of minutes behind, much like you see at the airport. The only glitch was that the sign always said everyone was right on schedule, which was almost never true.
- Listen for purpose. We touched on this idea with this week's top story about communicating with patients who research their (suspected) health conditions online. Most of the experts who commented on the topic advised paying most attention not to the diagnosis patients thought they had or treatments they believed to be appropriate, but the reasons they'd been scouring the web in the first place. As with many situations, much critical information may be between the lines of what a patient may be saying. Do a person's symptoms echo those of a loved one who had a serious illness? Has the person been to other healthcare providers who dismissed his or her concerns? Is the person concerned about an issue outside of the doctor's specialty but hoping to have a dialogue with someone familiar? Trying to discern the intention behind what someone (whether a patient, coworker, manager or casual observer) is saying when it's not spelled out can feel like attempting to mind-read, but it doesn't have to be that daunting. Just getting in the habit of asking yourself, "Why is this person telling me this?" can fast-track a derailed conversation back where it needs to go. - Deb (@PracticeMgt)
