How hospitalists and other clinicians communicate with patients impacts a patient’s overall experience and satisfaction. But according to the authors of “Communication the Cleveland Way,”1 a book about how the clinic created and applied communication skills training, “in a culture prioritizing clinical outcomes above all, there can be a tendency to lose sight of one of the most critical aspects of providing effective care: the communication skills that build and foster physician-patient relationships.”
“Studies2,3 have shown that good communication between doctors and patients and among all caregivers who interface with patients directly results in better clinical outcomes, reduced costs, greater patient satisfaction, and lower rates of physician burnout,” the authors wrote.
Dr. Vincent Velez
In an effort to improve communication among clinicians and patients, the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Excellence in Healthcare Communication (CEHC) created the Relationship Establishment, Development and Engagement (REDE) model. Vicente J. Velez, MD, FACP, FHM, a hospitalist who serves as the director of faculty enrichment for the leadership team of CEHC, said the model is based on decades of studies on health care communication.
“It places a special focus on empathy in relationships, and in our case, the provider-patient relationship rather than patient-centered care. The former acknowledges that the thoughts and feelings in both sides of a relationship are important. We know that clinicians, too, can suffer as a result of the care they provide,” Dr. Velez wrote in “Communication the Cleveland Way.”1
“Healthy relationships are based on balance and mutual respect,” Dr Velez said. “Courses made a strong point to practice empathy in order to teach empathy. Clinician participants were gifted with a safe space, an opportunity to share their own skills and expertise, and a chance to be appreciated for what they already do effectively. Most of all, activities were designed to be fun and engaging.” For example, CEHC encouraged and fostered an attitude of exploration, experimentation, and adventure. Various warm-up activities effectively helped the participants enter a more playful space and get into character portrayal.
Dr. Velez credits the CEHC model’s sustainability and success to the early realization that an appreciative approach is effective. In a study3 about the strategy, hospital-employed attending physicians participated in the 8-hour experiential communication skills training course on REDE. The study compared approximately 1,500 “intervention” physicians who attended and 1,900 “nonintervention” physicians who did not attend.
Following the course, scores for physician communication and respect were higher for intervention physicians. Furthermore, physicians showed significant improvement in self-perceptions of empathy and burnout. Some of these gains were sustained for at least 3 months. “This is especially important because in the current health care climate, physicians experience increased burnout,” Dr. Velez notes.
How it works
Because a provider’s connection with a patient occurs when a relationship is established, the REDE course focuses on the beginning of the conversation. “It’s important for clinicians to exhibit value and respect through words and actions when welcoming patients,” Dr. Velez said. “Further, instead of guiding the medical interview with a series of close-ended questions like an interrogator would, we invite the use of open-ended questions and setting an agenda for the visit early on, by asking the patient what they wish to discuss.”
Another key component is empathy, which plays a huge role in patient satisfaction. “Learning how to express empathy is very important,” Dr. Velez said. “A patient may not remember all of the medical details discussed, but human interactions, rapport, expressions of care, support, validation, and acknowledgment of emotions tend to be more indelible.”
Dr. Velez notes that decades of literature regarding effective communication have demonstrated improved outcomes. “If trust in a therapeutic relationship is strong, a patient is more likely to follow instructions and have better engagement with their care plan,” he said. “If a clinician ensures that the patient understands the diagnosis and recommendations, then compliance will increase, especially if the plan is tailored to the patient’s goals and perspective.”
One surprising effect of the REDE course was how it improved relationships among professionals. “Many participants have shared that having a day out of one’s normal schedule, not only to learn, but also to share their own experiences, is quite therapeutic,” Dr. Velez said. “We can extend the same communication strategies to team building, interprofessional interactions, and challenging encounters.”
Study focuses on comportment and communication
In an effort to define optimal care in hospital medicine, a team from Johns Hopkins Health System set out to establish a metric that would comprehensively assess hospitalists’ comportment (which includes behavior as well as general demeanor) and communication to establish norms and expectations when they saw patients at the bedside.