Physician communication skills -- predicting and preventing future woes

Many thanks to a local scouter in our tech services unit who passed along an article from Science Daily that he thought would interest us.  The article Physician's 'dashboard' takes a measure of communication skills reports on a study that utilizes a new system to instantaneousy report patients' perceptions of recent encounters. 

The system, developed by researchers at the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine, uses a touch screen kiosk where patients respond to six communication-related questions immediately following their encounter with the physician.  The other part of the system is a 12-inch screen that displays near real-time results of ongoing patient surveys in a colorful, easily interpretable visual display.  Additionally, the system provides private feedback to individual physicians in the form of a weekly email.  The purposes of the study are to 1. determine whether or not patients will complete the survey immediately following their visit, and 2. how physicians will respond when they actually have data.

The article quotes Dr. Pamela Wagner, who teaches communication skills to first year medical students, as saying, "The number one predictor of malpractice is poor communication, not that something bad has happened." Dr. Wagner goes on to say, "The innate desire to do well may help physicians modify their habits when they see vivid evidence that they are not."

While reading this first article, another one caught my eye.  Doctors' 'bedside manner' test predicts patient complaints reports on the results of  McGill University study of 3000+ practicing physicians who took the MCC clinical skills examination and the relationship between low scorers and the likelihood of patient complaints.

"Low scores on the exam were quite predictive," said  RobinTamblyn, scientific director of McGill University's Clinical and Health Informatics research unit. "It was really like a dose-response relationship. The higher your score, the less likely you would get complaints.

Both of these articles indicate the importance of good physician communication skills in optimizing patient care and satisfaction and/or preventing malpractice.  I sure hope the MCG is successful in providing practicing physians with data that will enable them to recognize a need for improved communication skills.  As for all of those low scorers on the clinical skills exam--maybe the bar should be set higher...