Tuesday, August 4, 2015
5 simple ways we can give our patients a better experience
Being sick and hospitalized in a lonely and unfamiliar place is a terrifying time for our patients. It's an easy thing for doctors and nurses to forget as we go about our hectic days, when time goes by so quickly that we barely have time to stop and think. Whether you are practicing medicine in a large academic center or a small rural hospital, the feedback that patients give about their hospitalization is surprisingly similar. And as the world of medicine goes about trying to improve the health care experience (often with unnecessarily complicated and expensive solutions), it's worth remembering that the things that patients ask for are really very simple and straightforward. Here are 5 of them:
1. Allowing a restful sleep
This is often the first complaint doctors hear when they walk into a room first thing in the morning. It may be a noisy neighbor, excessive commotion outside, a beeping machine, or unnecessary vital sign checks (on an otherwise stable patient). Let's start first with everyone involved in healthcare acknowledging that nobody can possibly get better if they can't get a decent rest!
2. Give a clear plan every day
This needs to be communicated clearly to both patients and their families. There should never be any situation where it's already mid-afternoon and neither the patient nor the nurse know what the plan is for the day. Multidisciplinary rounds—where the doctor goes over the daily strategy with the nurses, case managers, and even the physical therapists and pharmacists—can really help, and are taking off across the country. Other strategies, such as a whiteboard at the end of the bed, are also a good idea.
3. Let's be clear about waiting times
This includes time waiting in the emergency room, when a doctor is likely to see you on any given day, and the timing of medical investigations. There can be few things worse than not being allowed to eat or drink anything (when you're already feeling unwell), and then being told that the test or procedure you're waiting for is scheduled at some unknown time of day—”could be any time between 8 and 5 p.m.!” Often, if it's late in the afternoon and you know in advance, a small breakfast may even have been allowed. At least knowing a rough time can really help a patient to psychologically prepare and not have the feeling of being left in limbo.
4. Listen to those small requests that can make your patient's day
In the overall setting of an acute illness, a patient asking for something like being able to take a shower or go for a walk outside may seem almost irrelevant. But remember that it may well make a patient's day if you let them do this. Taking a shower in particular can make some patients feel like a million dollars afterwards! As long as it's safe to do these things, they should be allowed and even encouraged.
5. Hospital food
The agenda items wouldn't be complete without mentioning this. The stuff of legendary jokes, hospital food really can be, well … quite, sick. While not suggesting we have to serve up gourmet five-star restaurant style food, we certainly can put a little more thought into some healthy, delicious and inexpensive menu options in our nation's hospitals.
And so the list goes on, also including many things that are likely to be more resource-intensive, such as hiring additional nurses, buying more efficient computer systems, and allowing time for a much more thorough discharge process to occur. These should be addressed over time as well, but leaders have to remember that with the health care experience, it's often the little things we can do for our patients that really count.
Suneel Dhand, MD, ACP Member, is a practicing physician in Massachusetts. He has published numerous articles in clinical medicine, covering a wide range of specialty areas including; pulmonology, cardiology, endocrinology, hematology, and infectious disease. He has also authored chapters in the prestigious "5-Minute Clinical Consult" medical textbook. His other clinical interests include quality improvement, hospital safety, hospital utilization, and the use of technology in health care. This post originally appeared at his blog.
Labels: guest post, patient expectations, patient satisfaction, Suneel Dhand
posted by Suneel Dhand at
11:00 AM
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Albert Fuchs,
MD
Albert Fuchs, MD, FACP, graduated from the
University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, where he
also did his internal medicine training. Certified by the American
Board of Internal Medicine, Dr. Fuchs spent three years as a
full-time faculty member at UCLA School of Medicine before opening
his private practice in Beverly Hills in 2000.
And Thus, It Begins
Amanda Xi, ACP Medical
Student Member, is a first-year medical student at the OUWB School
of Medicine, charter class of 2015, in Rochester, Mich., from which
she which chronicles her journey through medical training from day
1 of medical school.
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Ira S. Nash,
MD, FACP, is the senior vice president and executive director of the North Shore-LIJ
Medical Group, and a professor of Cardiology and Population Health at Hofstra North
Shore-LIJ School of Medicine. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and
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Zackary Berger
Zackary Berger, MD, ACP Member, is a primary care doctor and
general internist in the Division of General Internal Medicine at
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communication, bioethics, and systematic reviews.
Controversies in Hospital
Infection Prevention
Run by three ACP
Fellows, this blog ponders vexing issues in infection prevention
and control, inside and outside the hospital. Daniel J Diekema, MD,
FACP, practices infectious diseases, clinical microbiology, and
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the hospital. Michael B. Edmond, MD, FACP, is a hospital
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infections occur in the hospital and ways to prevent these
infections, and sees patients in the inpatient and outpatient
settings. Eli N. Perencevich, MD, ACP Member, is an infectious
disease physician and epidemiologist in Iowa City, Iowa, who
studies methods to halt the spread of resistant bacteria in our
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hands).
db's Medical Rants
Robert M. Centor, MD, FACP, contributes short essays contemplating
medicine and the health care system.
Suneel Dhand, MD, ACP Member
Suneel Dhand, MD,
ACP Member, is a practicing physician in Massachusetts. He has published numerous
articles in clinical medicine, covering a wide range of specialty areas including;
pulmonology, cardiology, endocrinology, hematology, and infectious disease. He has also
authored chapters in the prestigious "5-Minute Clinical Consult" medical textbook. His
other clinical interests include quality improvement, hospital safety, hospital
utilization, and the use of technology in health care.
DrDialogue
Juliet K. Mavromatis, MD, FACP, provides a conversation about
health topics for patients and health professionals.
Dr. Mintz' Blog
Matthew Mintz, MD, FACP, has practiced internal medicine for more
than a decade and is an Associate Professor of Medicine at an
academic medical center on the East Coast. His time is split
between teaching medical students and residents, and caring for
patients.
Everything
Health
Toni Brayer, MD, FACP, blogs about the rapid changes in science,
medicine, health and healing in the 21st century.
FutureDocs
Vineet Arora, MD, FACP, is Associate Program Director for the
Internal Medicine Residency and Assistant Dean of Scholarship &
Discovery at the Pritzker School of Medicine for the University of
Chicago. Her education and research focus is on resident duty
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John H. Schumann, MD, FACP, provides transparency on the workings
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illuminates the emotional and cognitive aspects of caregiving and
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Gut Check
Ryan Madanick, MD, ACP Member, is a gastroenterologist at the
University of North Carolina School of Medicine, and the Program
Director for the GI & Hepatology Fellowship Program. He
specializes in diseases of the esophagus, with a strong interest in
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I'm dok
Mike Aref, MD, PhD, FACP, is an academic hospitalist with an
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informatics, new medical education modalities, pre-code/code
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Informatics
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William Hersh, MD, FACP, Professor and Chair, Department of Medical
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David Katz, MD
David L. Katz, MD, MPH, FACP, is an internationally renowned
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chronic disease, and an internationally recognized leader in
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Just Oncology
Richard Just, MD, ACP Member, has 36 years in clinical practice of
hematology and medical oncology. His blog is a joint publication
with Gregg Masters, MPH.
KevinMD
Kevin Pho, MD, ACP Member, offers one of the Web's definitive sites
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MD
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Michael Kirsch, MD, FACP, addresses the joys and challenges of
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he's not writing, he's performing colonoscopies.
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Elaine Schattner, MD, FACP, shares her ideas on education, ethics
in medicine, health care news and culture. Her views on medicine
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researcher in cancer immunology, and as a patient who's had breast
cancer.
Mired in MedEd
Alexander M.
Djuricich, MD, FACP, is the Associate Dean for Continuing Medical
Education (CME), and a Program Director in Medicine-Pediatrics at
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blogs about medical education.
More Musings
Rob Lamberts, MD, ACP Member, a med-peds and general practice
internist, returns with "volume 2" of his personal musings about
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Distractible Kind).
Prescriptions
David M. Sack, MD, FACP, practices general gastroenterology at a
small community hospital in Connecticut. His blog is a series of
musings on medicine, medical care, the health care system and
medical ethics, in no particular order.
Reflections of a Grady
Doctor
Kimberly Manning, MD, FACP, reflects on the personal side of being
a doctor in a community hospital in Atlanta.
The Blog of Paul Sufka
Paul Sufka,
MD, ACP Member, is a board certified rheumatologist in St. Paul,
Minn. He was a chief resident in internal medicine with the
University of Minnesota and then completed his fellowship training
in rheumatology in June 2011 at the University of Minnesota
Department of Rheumatology. His interests include the use of
technology in medicine.
Technology in (Medical)
Education
Neil Mehta, MBBS, MS, FACP, is interested in use of technology in
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Peter A. Lipson,
MD
Peter A. Lipson, MD, ACP Member, is a practicing internist and
teaching physician in Southeast Michigan. The blog, which has been
around in various forms since 2007, offers musings on the
intersection of science, medicine, and culture.
Why is American Health Care So Expensive?
Janice
Boughton, MD, FACP, practiced internal medicine for 20 years before
adopting a career in hospital and primary care medicine as a locum
tenens physician. She lives in Idaho when not traveling.
World's Best Site
Daniel Ginsberg, MD,
FACP, is an internal medicine physician who has avidly applied
computers to medicine since 1986, when he first wrote medically
oriented computer programs. He is in practice in Tacoma,
Washington.
Other blogs of note:
American Journal of
Medicine
Also known as the Green Journal, the American Journal of Medicine
publishes original clinical articles of interest to physicians in
internal medicine and its subspecialities, both in academia and
community-based practice.
Clinical
Correlations
A collaborative medical blog started by Neil Shapiro, MD, ACP
Member, associate program director at New York University Medical
Center's internal medicine residency program. Faculty, residents
and students contribute case studies, mystery quizzes, news,
commentary and more.
Interact MD
Michael Benjamin, MD, ACP member, doesn't accept industry money so
he can create an independent, clinician-reviewed space on the
Internet for physicians to report and comment on the medical news
of the day.
PLoS Blog
The Public Library of Science's open access materials include a
blog.
White Coat
Rants
One of the most popular anonymous blogs written by an emergency
room physician.
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