I am a big fan of Infographics. They are great for turning otherwise complex data into practical information. Here’s an Infographic I built to describe the “disconnect” that often occurs between physicians and patients and the impact of adherence.
*This blog post was originally published at Mind The Gap*
It’s the age of medical disconnect.
The disconnect describes the emotional and intellectual detachment that physicians feel from their patients and patients from their doctors. This disconnect is the result of a confluence of factors, some from within the profession itself, others are more broadly social and economic.
To understand the disconnect you need look no further than your neighbor or your parents. Dissatisfaction is evolving as the norm. Patients feel increasingly marginalized in their experiences with physicians. Shrinking length of visits, indifferent attitudes, poorly coordinated evaluations, difficulty obtaining test results, an institutional feel to the patient experience, and the overall sense of not feeling at all important.
The truth is that many of us are really not aware of the disconnect. Most of us have been born into a system of dysfunctional provider relationships and we know nothing else. As physicians we’ve been trained to be detached. As patients we’ve been conditioned to live happily detached.
Of course there are plenty of physicians who Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
Reading the ER Stories blog is often a guilty pleasure for me. Today’s post, however, struck a nerve:
Very often I ask patients about their recent visits to other doctors. While I am taking a history, it’s important for me to know if you’ve recently been seen by another provider for the same or similar complaints and what they did, what they diagnosed you with, what they prescribed, etc.
I often get a kind of irritated response such as “Oh, he didn’t do anything” or “he said it was nothing” or “he didn’t say anything to me”. Although I know my share of layzee doctors, I bet the vast majority of times, the doctor DID do something and DID say something.
Just not what the patient either wanted to hear or that their perception or comprehension was wrong. …
… Now, maybe he is not a good communicator. Maybe he doesn’t have the time to sit there and explain the pathophysiology of viruses or something like benign peripheral vertigo – and thus you feel short changed. After all he “just asked me a few questions, listened to my lungs and told me to go home and rest”.
Early on in my training I was fortunate to be taught that proper communication is the responsibility of both doctor and patient. So when a patient shows up in my ED and says their last doctor “did nothing” — when I can see with a few clicks that they got labs, a CT, and two prescriptions — well, there’s a failure to communicate. And the other doctor carries at least some of the blame for this. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Blogborygmi*
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