Communicating with patients about breakdowns in care: a national randomised vignette-based survey.
Communicating with patients about breakdowns in care: a national randomised vignette-based survey.
- 2020
BACKGROUND: Many patients are reluctant to speak up about breakdowns in care, resulting in missed opportunities to respond to individual patients and improve the system. Effective approaches to encouraging patients to speak up and responding when they do are needed. CONCLUSIONS: Asking about possible care breakdowns in detail, and offering a full apology when breakdowns are reported substantially increases patients' willingness to recommend the hospital. Copyright (c) Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. DESIGN: Randomised experiment using a vignette-based questionnaire describing 3 care breakdowns (slow response to call bell, rude aide, unanswered questions). The role of the person inquiring about concerns (doctor, nurse, patient care specialist), extent of the prompt (invitation to patient to share concerns) and level of apology were varied. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Affective responses to care breakdowns, intent to speak up, willingness to recommend the hospital. OBJECTIVE: To identify factors which influence speaking up, and to examine the impact of apology when problems occur. PARTICIPANTS: 1188 adults aged >=35 years were sampled from an online panel representative of the entire US population, created and maintained by GfK, an international survey research organisation; 65.5% response rate. RESULTS: Twice as many participants receiving an in-depth prompt about care breakdowns would (probably/definitely) recommend the hospital compared with those receiving no prompt (18.4% vs 8.8% respectively (p=0.0067)). Almost three times as many participants receiving a full apology would (probably/definitely) recommend the hospital compared with those receiving no apology (34.1% vs 13.6% respectively ((p<0.0001)). Feeling upset was a strong determinant of greater intent to speak up, but a substantial number of upset participants would not 'definitely' speak up. A more extensive prompt did not result in greater likelihood of speaking up. The inquirer's role influenced speaking up for two of the three breakdowns (rudeness and slow response). SETTING: National online survey.
English
2044-5415
10.1136/bmjqs-2019-009712 [doi] bmjqs-2019-009712 [pii]
*Attitude of Health Personnel
*Communication
*Patient Care/px [Psychology]
*Patient Satisfaction/sn [Statistics & Numerical Data]
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Female
Health Care Surveys/is [Instrumentation]
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Quality Improvement
Quality of Health Care
United States
MedStar Health Research Institute
Journal Article
BACKGROUND: Many patients are reluctant to speak up about breakdowns in care, resulting in missed opportunities to respond to individual patients and improve the system. Effective approaches to encouraging patients to speak up and responding when they do are needed. CONCLUSIONS: Asking about possible care breakdowns in detail, and offering a full apology when breakdowns are reported substantially increases patients' willingness to recommend the hospital. Copyright (c) Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. DESIGN: Randomised experiment using a vignette-based questionnaire describing 3 care breakdowns (slow response to call bell, rude aide, unanswered questions). The role of the person inquiring about concerns (doctor, nurse, patient care specialist), extent of the prompt (invitation to patient to share concerns) and level of apology were varied. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Affective responses to care breakdowns, intent to speak up, willingness to recommend the hospital. OBJECTIVE: To identify factors which influence speaking up, and to examine the impact of apology when problems occur. PARTICIPANTS: 1188 adults aged >=35 years were sampled from an online panel representative of the entire US population, created and maintained by GfK, an international survey research organisation; 65.5% response rate. RESULTS: Twice as many participants receiving an in-depth prompt about care breakdowns would (probably/definitely) recommend the hospital compared with those receiving no prompt (18.4% vs 8.8% respectively (p=0.0067)). Almost three times as many participants receiving a full apology would (probably/definitely) recommend the hospital compared with those receiving no apology (34.1% vs 13.6% respectively ((p<0.0001)). Feeling upset was a strong determinant of greater intent to speak up, but a substantial number of upset participants would not 'definitely' speak up. A more extensive prompt did not result in greater likelihood of speaking up. The inquirer's role influenced speaking up for two of the three breakdowns (rudeness and slow response). SETTING: National online survey.
English
2044-5415
10.1136/bmjqs-2019-009712 [doi] bmjqs-2019-009712 [pii]
*Attitude of Health Personnel
*Communication
*Patient Care/px [Psychology]
*Patient Satisfaction/sn [Statistics & Numerical Data]
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Female
Health Care Surveys/is [Instrumentation]
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Quality Improvement
Quality of Health Care
United States
MedStar Health Research Institute
Journal Article