Development of a real-time physician–patient communication data collection tool

[摘要] Objectives To design a tool to assess and improvephysician communication, provide physicians withpersonalised feedback in real time, and relate specificcommunication behaviours to patient experience measures.It was hypothesised that performance of fundamentalcommunication behaviours would correlate with individualpatient experience scores as measured by the HospitalConsumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems(HCAHPS) surveys.Design Prospective observational study.Setting Single-centre study at a mid-sized academic tertiarymedical centre.Participants Thirteen hospitalists across 305 patientinteractions were assessed in this study. Participants wererecruited from three geographically cohorted adult generalmedicine-teaching teams on two inpatient units. Participantswith cognitive impairment or who were unable to speakEnglish were excluded from the study.Main outcome measures Frequency of performance of10 fundamental communication behaviours.Results The communication behaviours of 13 hospitalistswere assessed by 305 surveys: 146 observations, 106patient reports and 52 excluded interactions. During rounds,50% of physicians introduced themselves, 40% explainedtheir role, 44% introduced other members of the team, 59%addressed patients by name, 58% addressed friends/family,59% attempted to be at eye level, 41% asked permissionbefore performing a physical examination, 40% asked ifpatients had questions and 20% asked if patients understoodthe plan of care. Several variables correlated with higherHCAHPS scores; however, addressing patients by name(r=0.60482, p=0.0492) and introducing other membersof the team (r=0.87239, p=0.0234) were statisticallysignificant.Conclusion This study highlights the importance ofeffective physician–patient communication and presentsa unique data collection tool to assess and improvephysician communication in real time. This tool can providephysicians with personalised feedback and relate specificcommunication behaviours to patient experience measuresto provide high-quality care and improve the patientexperience.

[学科分类] 药学