What Happens when patients don’t understand?
Barb.McLaughlin - July, 2018
The number one complaint on the HCHAPS surveys is lack of or confusing communications! The single biggest thing you can do to improve your hospital’s score is to improve patient communications as most of the questions are centered on this basic premise:
Did you understand?
Did they explain?
Was it clear?
When patients do not understand the basic instructions or are unable to make good health decisions from an informed perspective, There are literally countless things that can go wrong.
- They might go to the wrong location (usually because that’s where they went last time). This makes them late and back up your whole schedule.
- They might neglect to prepare properly for their appointment- resulting in having to reschedule them, or possible physical harm. (Patients who eat before surgery risk serious danger).
- They might neglect to bring the proper documentation, such as physician referrals, appropriate identification, insurance information, etc. This often results in a reschedule also.
- They may show up at the wrong time or the wrong day. Patients have busy lives and often get their days of the week mixed up. Or mishear the time they are supposed to show up. This too wreaks havoc on their health and on medical schedules!
- They may get lost on their way to their appointment location or on their way to their specific room location. This also affects schedules but most importantly it can dramatically impact the patient anxiety level (which may be why patient blood pressure spikes during doctor visits?)
- When patients can’t read or can’t read English they may completely misunderstand their locations, cost, process, and options as well as what they need to do. Health Literacy issues account for BILLIONS of dollars of wasted costs in healthcare, not to mention patient safety.
- Let’s not forget all the personal things that may affect a patient’s ability to understand such as emotional issues, personality issues, trust issues, fear issues, financial issues, just to name a few.
There are other things we can list after having experienced most of them, but this should paint a good picture for you.
The answer? SEND CRITICAL MEDICAL INFORMATION IN THE PATIENT’S LANGUAGE OF CHOICE USING EVERY METHODOLOGY AVAILABLE TO MAKE SURE MESSAGE SENT, RECEIVED, AND UNDERSTOOD!!
At Smart Source we can show you the way. www.hand-holder.com/