A Multifaceted Approach to Improve Physician Communication Scores

Ryan McCaffrey; Dane Hale; Schawan Kunupakaphun; Laura Kaufman; Pracha Eamranond

doi:10.1177/2374373519860041

A Multifaceted Approach to Improve Physician Communication Scores

J Patient Exp. 2020 Aug;7(4):522-526. doi: 10.1177/2374373519860041. Epub 2019 Jul 9.

Authors

Ryan McCaffrey¹, Dane Hale¹, Schawan Kunupakaphun¹, Laura Kaufman^{1

2}, Pracha Eamranond^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Lawrence General Hospital, Lawrence, MA, USA.
² Greater Lawrence Family Health Center, Lawrence, MA, USA.
³ Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

Abstract

Improving patient satisfaction scores has become a key focus of health-care organizations nationwide but can be a struggle for community hospitals with constrained resources, and particularly challenging for hospitalist programs due to provider variance and turnover. Using the framework of appreciative inquiry, we implemented a multipronged intervention including a rounding model whereby hospitalist leaders rounded on patients and relayed commentary back to their hospitalist providers. We communicated positive feedback preferentially over negative feedback to the entire hospitalist group through regular communication. Providers were encouraged to employ best practices including sitting with the patient, reviewing recommendations using teach back, and providing business cards. Scores improved in the physician communication category by approximately 1% annually from fiscal year 2015 through 2018, with our percentile rank improving 35 percentile points during that time. These findings indicate that a multifaceted approach including best practices is associated with improved patient experience regarding communication with physicians.

Keywords: HCAHPS; culture/diversity; employee engagement; leadership rounding; organizational communication; patient satisfaction; physician engagement; team communication.