Many problems with communication have been identified, and the focus is on how best to improve them. One such area is improving communication and patient satisfaction, and this article highlights some of the challenges and successes related to this. This information can help you understand and appreciate the many efforts made by the Malaysian Government and its agencies to improve services and patient care in general.
Health care providers are very familiar with effective communication and are constantly striving to improve it. Communication with patient and family have developed several healthcare quality improvement programs to ensure that the exchange of information is as smooth as possible. They are also involved in creating training opportunities and designing training modules to help staff members understand and apply their newly developed skills in their work. Such developments are related to both expanding the domain-specific communication practice of HCP-PC and improving communication effectiveness itself.
The need for effective communication is essential, particularly where medical matters are concerned, and doctors and staff use a variety of channels of communication, including radios, mobile phones, fax machines, and the internet. However, all communication needs to be kept in perspective. For example, doctors using mobile phones to communicate with their staff need to remember that their patients also need to understand what they are saying. Fax machines and radios should also only be used when necessary. The same goes for the internet: it is helpful to exchange information about the latest research findings, but it can be dangerous without appropriate knowledge of the patient. For this reason, all patient communication data, from notes to charts to headings, is maintained in electronic format and is available for review and analysis.
There are many ways in which healthcare institutions can improve their communication and patient care practices. These are more comprehensive than paper-based systems, and they allow many patients to keep track of their health history over time.
There are also many patient communication options, both within the healthcare setting and between healthcare professionals and their patients. Patient satisfaction surveys show that doctors and nurses have different views regarding their communication styles. While nurses report having plenty of conversation, doctors say they prefer to keep their interactions strictly one-on-one. Doctors feel that DMPs give them too much freedom to discuss patients’ issues, while nurses feel far less control over doctor-patient communication.
Another area of dissatisfaction in the medical profession is regarding the frequency of patient visits and consultations. In most cases, doctors say that they have an agreement with their patients to visit at set intervals, usually once or twice per month. When the visits don’t occur as regularly as desired, or when the visits are less beneficial for the patients than preferred, there is a noticeable lack of communication between doctor and patient.
The lack of communication has led to a variety of other problems. Most notably, it is leading to patient dissatisfaction. Patients are less satisfied with the level of care they receive, and they don’t like the idea of relying on the physician to resolve their own needs. Additionally, some physicians feel that patients are less likely to return for repeat visits to the same doctor when they receive a better, more personalized service elsewhere. This type of scenario can lead to increased financial strain and even depression among patients. To avoid this problem, the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) recommends that all healthcare providers create a uniform policy for their patients that outlines what will be expected of them during visits, how those visits will be structured, and who will make treatment decisions.
In addition to providing a more tailored treatment plan for each patient, clinics and hospitals that provide high-quality health care must also ensure that communication with patients is an integral part of their overall success. Improved communication leads to improved patient satisfaction and improves the efficiency of the staff conducting their duties. As more hospitals and clinics elect to implement an integrated system that includes an electronic medical record, or EMR, communication becomes more accessible and faster. Manually entered data can become overwhelmed when data is shared between different departments. Using an integrated system that includes an EMR and hips- pc can eliminate this problem.
More Stories