When it comes to communication at a hospital or clinic, there is no denying its huge significance in affecting the quality of services that a patient receives.
Good healthcare is not just about providing satisfactory treatment. It’s also about communicating with patients and providing them with the necessary information, as well as communicating with nurses and fellow practitioners to determine the best way to carry out surgery or offer treatment.
One of the ways this is made possible is through the use of communications technology such as the internet.
Let’s take a look at the importance of clinical communication and why it should be maintained.
Patient Safety
The number of patients who die every year due to poor communication practices in hospitals is staggering. In fact, it is more than the deaths caused by malpractice or the practitioner's lack of skill.
This alone is enough reason to ensure that there is good communication between doctors, as well as between doctors and patients. Moreover, communication allows access to a patient’s medical history, thus enabling doctors to make the right diagnosis and formulate the best treatment plan.
Patients Can Relax
It is very common for patients who are in need of medical attention to be nervous. After all, they do not know what their problem is, its extent, or how it’s going to affect their lives. If the patient is afraid, he or she may be unwilling to share certain information that could help in their treatment.
Furthermore, patients will tend to act out of character if they are nervous, or not commit to the treatment at all. Clinical communication, therefore, allows doctors to understand the main issue with the patient and to communicate better with them. Doctors are also able to provide the right diagnosis and treatment. Moreover, the patient is also more likely to follow through with any successive treatments.
Inter-Hospital Communication
Many times, patients will need to be moved from one hospital to another. Sometimes, the institutions are part of the same organization, while other times they are completely unrelated. Proper healthcare communications ensure that the right medical records and the right facilities are made available and can be utilized for the patients.
If there are no clear and effective lines of communication, the costs can often rise sharply. This is because there will be a need for confirming the information or creating duplicate records.
Secondly, patients may find that their treatment can get delayed if the communication is not as effective as it should be. All this can be avoided by ensuring clear communication between facilities.
Intra-Hospital Communication
There is also a huge importance of ensuring clear lines of communication within the same organization. This allows patients to schedule an appointment and receive treatment quickly and efficiently.
However, if there is a lack of good communication, locating the medical records of patients may be a problem. This can also delay their treatment or could result in the wrong treatment. Luckily, it is not hard to improve health communication and all medical practitioners and nurses should, therefore, be able to work closely together and to communicate with each other efficiently.
Patients Feel Valued
The main reason why most medical practitioners join the field in the first place is that they want to help patients. Part of offering quality medical care is showing the patient that they are valued. This means listening to them, advising them, and sympathizing with them.
When patients feel comfortable, they are more likely to tell you all about their medical history. If doctors offer their time, attention, and expertise to the patients, they are more likely to recommend the clinic to friends and family.
All this is made possible through good communication channels between doctors and patients.
Unnecessary Costs Are Minimized
While patient records need to be shared between health practitioners in the same hospital and also between different hospitals, poor communication costs health care facilities millions of dollars each year. These expenses are unnecessary and can be avoided by effectively keeping communication lines open.
Final Word
The importance of good and efficient clinical communications cannot be overemphasized. Not only does it help prevent unnecessary costs for patients and institutions, but it can also mean the difference between life and death to a patient. Keep in mind that poor communication is often attributed as a major cause of death, even more so than doctor negligence and lack of experience. Therefore, this is a topic that needs to be given due attention to help prevent unnecessary accidents, as well as provide top-notch medical care.
Arcelia Campbel
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Arcelia Campbell is a full-time blogger who regularly publishes articles on health and wellness. From making healthy recipes, doing workouts at home to discussing the healthiest supplements in the market, Arcelia tackles everything on her blogs.
