Study Finds Many Patients Dissatisfied With Hospitals

“Poor communication is a major source of medical errors,” Dr. Clancy said. “If doctors are not listening carefully, patients may not bring up important information. Patients who do not understand discharge instructions are more likely to be readmitted to the hospital or end up in the emergency room.”

The above quote from the March 29th NYT article entitled “Study Finds Many Patients Dissatisfied With Hospitals” makes evident the importance of adequate doctor-patient and nurse-patient communication. Such nuances allow for patients to have an understanding of things to expect following a hospital stay and things to look out for, such as infection or complications. When one of these things is not accurately or effectively communicated, more worry is created for the patient and more work created for the healthcare givers.

Additionally, the article states that the questionnaire allowed for “an apples-to-apples comparison” of hospitals at the state, local and national levels. However, as we have seen in class, often these blanket methods of measurement do not actually measure anything at all. For example, from my own personal experience, two people can have the same medical care (same doctors, same procedure, etc.) and have markedly different views of the successfulness/comfort of their experience due to differences in their perception. So of what value is a certain rating? If you look at the questionnaire linked to the article, there are very specific criteria under each hospital, with general medical procedures people often have for various reasons. Since specific procedures are listed, people might try to generalize their experience in order to fit the category… with these things in mind, are responses really “apples-to-apples?”