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exemplary care
We are very saddened by the death of Dr. Sudarshan Siva, one of our best and most loved
hospitalists. We want to share with Dr. Siva’s family and the Suburban community our memories
of Dr. Siva’s exemplary care for his patients and their families.
Suburban Hospital’s Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC) brings together community
volunteer Patient Family Advisors (PFAs) and Suburban Hospital clinical, administrative and
executive staff to promote a patient- and family-centered culture that involves a collaborative
polite
partnership among patients, families, hospital leadership and staff, and enables our patients
to experience excellent clinical, compassionate and supportive health care.
From 2016 to 2019, our Patient and Family Advisors worked closely with the Hospitalist Group
Leaders on an innovative program to improve patient and family communication with hospitalists.
Working with hospitalist leader Atul Rohatgi, M.D., who is a staff member on the PFAC,
we developed a questionnaire and conducted hundreds of interviews of patients and their
families about their experience with their hospitalists. The questionnaire consisted of
open-ended and specific behavior questions. The PFAs interviewed the patients and families
in person during the patient’s stay, asking questions orally and taking note of their responses.
communication
We shared the questionnaires with Dr. Rohatgi, and he then used this information to help
coach his team members on ways to improve their communication with their patients
and care partners. >>>
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competent
common recollection is that Dr. Siva’s patients uniformly reported how kind and competent
PFAs who participated in this program have shared their remembrances of Dr. Siva. Their
he was and that they would have chosen him as their primary care physician if he had been in
private practice. His polite, humble and caring manner, including his warm smile, enabled him
to connect with his patients. He demonstrated the critical skills of being an excellent listener
and communicating the medical information to patients and their care partners in language they
could understand and inviting them to ask questions if more information was needed.
excellent
One of our PFAs was a care partner of a patient who was fortunate to have received Dr. Siva’s
listener
partner to a non-family member, our PFA notes that, in addition to all the attributes described
care during her very difficult advanced cancer diagnosis and extended hospital stay. As a care
above, and perhaps because of them, Dr. Siva gained the utmost trust and confidence of the
patient, her care partner, and the patient’s family. She said that it was always a relief to know
that Dr. Siva was the hospitalist of the day, given his excellence, demeanor and superb
communication skills.
confidence
We are so sorry for the loss to his family as well as to the Suburban community.
Dr. Siva will be missed by us all.
—Jean Hochron
Patient and Family Advisor
Co-Chair of Suburban’s PFAC
Sudarshan Siva, M.D. | 39