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Benefit Of Report Card Feedback After Point-Of-Care Assessment Of Communication Quality Indicators, Michael H. Farrell, Clair R. Sprenger, Shelbie L. Sullivan, Bree A. Trisler, Jessica J F Kram, Erin K. Ruppel

Mike Farrell, MD

Purpose

Communication is crucial for patient experience and biomedical outcomes. Training programs improve communication but are too resource-intensive for sustained use across an entire health care organization. This study demonstrates in a heterogeneous set of encounters the efficacy of quantitative feedback on two groups of physician communication behaviors: 1) jargon explanation, and 2) assessment of patient understanding.

Methods

We used a secure Internet application to audio-record conversations between primary care physicians and 54 patients. Transcripts were quantitatively abstracted using explicit-criteria definitions for assessments of understanding and jargon explanations. These data were conveyed to physicians using a previously tested report card. …