Page 8 - September 2020 Ulupono

What Patients Want You to Know about “Medical History”
By Steve Bovey Quality Supervisor
Fear. Anxiety. Uncertainty. Feeling drained and pained. These words and phrases describe what patients may be feeling while in a hospital or clinic, even under the best of circumstances. And right now, during the pandemic, these feelings can be amplified as we restrict visitation, wear masks and social distance. NRC Health, our patient satisfaction survey vendor has provided the following information to help during these uncertain times.
Communicating an understanding of the patient’s medical history can greatly reduce the feelings of fear and anxiety by our patients. Nearly half of adults in the United States have trouble understanding what their care providers tell them about why they’re sick and how to comply with their medication regimes. For patients to not feel vulnerable, they need to understand their own medical history, including what they could be doing that has an impact on their current and future health.
When it comes to understanding medical history, there are three main actions the patient seeks on the part of their care providers. Patients want their providers to:
Review their medical history before seeing them in person.
Show personal knowledge of them and their history.
Ask questions and offer solutions.
Review their medical history before seeing them in person.
When there has been prior contact between a patient and an organization, care providers need to come across as familiar with the patient’s case from the moment they enter the room. That first impression can set
the tone for the remainder of the visit. For example: “The last time you visited, we changed your medication to [medication name]. How is that working for you?”
Show personal knowledge of the patient and their history
Patients want to be viewed as individuals. Having an authentic relationship with our patients includes understanding how their health impacts the things that are important to the patient such as their careers, family and other interests. For example: “How
is [child’s name] doing in [activity] this season?” This helps to ensure that the visit begins as a human interaction rather than just a clinical one. This kind of information can be tracked in the medical record for easy recollection.
Include past, present, and future concerns in the conversation. If there are past occurrences that could be impacting the visit, bring them into the conversation. This helps the patient understand not only that their current health and status are important, but also that the dots are being connected across visits.
Ask questions and offer solutions.
Patients want to see their options as choices. Giving them concrete choices empowers them and assures them that whatever solutions are being offered are the best for them personally.
If certain options are ruled out, be sure to include the patient in the thought process. Helping them understand why something isn’t a good choice for them involves them in their care in a real way.
If more than one option is available, discuss them all. Educating patients about their choices empowers them as part of the
team, allowing them to be more active in their health. They will also be more likely to implement the decision.
Offer choices that will work for the patient. In part, this goes back to knowing the patient on a personal level—letting a patient control their diabetes through weight
loss and diet rather than medications, for example, may be very important to them personally.
Interactions with patients are becoming more and more time-compressed
as volumes increase. Accordingly, understanding what patients are hoping to get out of their visit ahead of time, and adopting a few simple behaviors to meet those expectations, can help improve
the patient experience in the hospital or clinic. Improvements in communication will always strengthen the clinician-patient relationship—but they require going beyond a brief chart review or clinical conversation, to get at what your patients really want.
8 | ULUPONO - SEPTEMBER 2020