When it comes to communicating with patients, doctors aren't doing as well as they give themselves credit for, according to findings from a recently published study in the August Archives of Internal Medicine. The study reveals that, in fact, there are significant gaps between what doctors think their hospitalized patients know and what the patients say they learned.
Findings are based on a survey of 89 patients and 43 physicians conducted between October 2008 and June 2009 at Waterbury Hospital, a private, nonprofit hospital in Connecticut affiliated with Yale University School of Medicine.
Researchers found that some of the discrepancies relate to basic information. For examples, two-thirds of physicians thought patients knew their names. But only 18 percent of patients could correctly say their names.
Other information gaps are more critical and could affect patient safety and quality of care. Roughly three in four (77 percent) physicians thought that patients knew their diagnoses, while in reality only 57 percent of patients knew of their doctors' diagnoses.
Furthermore, while two-thirds of patients reported receiving a new medication in the hospital, 90 percent of them said they had never been warned of the med's adverse side effects.
Virtually all doctors (98 percent) said that they discussed their patients' fears and anxieties. Still, only about half (46 percent) of the patients seemed to agree.
The survey responses were not based on one-to-one physician/patient comparisons and the patients surveyed were older, indigent, and less educated than average, the Wall Street Journal notes.
To learn more:
- read the Archives of Internal Medicine article
- see the Medscape article (registration required)
- see the Los Angeles Times article
- see the Wall Street Journal Health Blog post
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