Patient Communication

Do better outcomes from female docs signal need for more empathy?

April 25, 2024 - Are women better doctors than men? It’s still hard to tell, according to a study examining clinical outcomes for female versus male doctors, but there is something to be said about gender concordance in the patient-provider relationship. Overall, female patients have lower hospital mortality and readmission rates when they are treated by a...

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What are patient decision aids in shared decision-making?

by Sara Heath

Healthcare professionals practicing shared decision-making with their patients may want to consider using patient decision aids (PDAs) to support that work. This is because shared decision-making relies on strong patient education and...

Is clinician empathy the new painkiller for chronic pain patients?

by Sara Heath

Clinician empathy could be a key pain reliever for patients experiencing chronic pain, with a recent study in JAMA Network Open outlining how greater perceptions of empathy from their physicians were...

Top patient engagement strategies for hospital discharge

by Sara Heath

Strong patient engagement during hospital discharge is a non-negotiable for most healthcare organizations. As hospitals continue to embrace value-based care models, which issue reimbursement based on a set of clinical quality measures,...

Patient portal message responses vary by race, ethnicity

by Sara Heath

The doctor is in? For Black patients sending patient portal messages, that might not be true, according to a new study in JAMA Network Open. The analysis of nearly 58,000 patient portal messages sent...

Better change management key to patient self-scheduling buy-in

by Sara Heath

Healthcare organizations that have implemented patient self-scheduling technologies have done so with success, but it’s going to require a better change management plan to get the provider and...

Healthgrades: communication, patient experience sway recommendations

by Sara Heath

Hospitals and health systems working to build a better reputation should focus on patient-provider communication, according to Healthgrades, which extrapolated insights about the overall patient...

Out-of-pocket costs for patient portal messages reach $25

by Sara Heath

It’s getting increasingly common for healthcare providers to bill for patient portal messages, and it’s leaving some patients on the hook for an out-of-pocket bill, albeit the bill is...

OpenNotes Sets Sights on AI in Healthcare with New OpenNotes Lab

by Sara Heath

OpenNotes, the patient advocacy group that’s historically led the charge for better patient data access, is dipping its toes in the AI waters with OpenNotes Labs, an initiative to understand how...

Patient Trust in Healthcare AI Relies on Use Case, But Familiarity Is Lacking

by Sara Heath

Do patients trust AI in healthcare? It depends on what it’s being used for, 44 percent of patients said in a recent athenahealth/Dynata poll that was emailed to PatientEngagementHIT. But even as...

Half of Healthcare Staff Report Racism & Discrimination Against Patients

by Sara Heath

Nearly half of healthcare providers have borne witness to healthcare discrimination, doubling down on a patient experience and health equity problem that’s shown to impact patients of color and...

How Can AI Chatbots Help Docs Tailor Patient Education?

by Sara Heath

A sample of three studies presented at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) is casting doubt on AI chatbots’ and large language models’ abilities...

Patient-Provider Communication About Dementia Left Wanting

by Sara Heath

Social stigma is getting in the way of patient-provider communication about Alzheimer’s and other dementias, but there’s a way around that, according to researchers from the Regenstrief...

Which Healthcare Players Yield the Highest Patient Satisfaction?

by Sara Heath

While patient satisfaction with clinicians such as doctors and nurses is still high, that’s not necessarily the case with every healthcare player, according to recent Gallup polling. The survey...

Patient-Provider Communication Ranks High While Doc Face Time Lags

by Sara Heath

Patient-provider communication is proving highly effective and beneficial to the patient experience during hospital stays—but that’s only if a patient can actually see a doctor, according...

Discrimination in Healthcare Affects Patient Experience, Outcomes

by Sara Heath

More data is out demonstrating the role racism and discrimination play in healthcare, with the latest from KFF showing that Black, Hispanic, American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN), and Asian people are...

HHS Unveils Updated Language Access Plan for Health Equity

by Sara Heath

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is cracking down on language access and patient rights to medical interpreters as a part of agency efforts to improve health equity. The HHS Language...

Public Health Messaging on RSV Needs Leg Up for Older Adults

by Sara Heath

Six in 10 adults over age 50 haven’t heard of RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, and another 70 percent haven’t heard of the RSV vaccine most experts say could stave off another...

Best Practices for Improving Patient-Provider Communication

by Sara Heath

Patient-provider communication is at the forefront of the healthcare experience. Good communication has far-reaching impacts ranging from poor patient satisfaction to a misunderstanding of treatments...

How Can Hospitals Measure Family Experience with Communication?

by Sara Heath

What would it take to improve the family experience and provider communication? While there’s still no magic elixir to create the perfect provider relationship, scientists at the Regenstrief Institute say family experience...