It pays to listen: The importance of doctor-patient communication

Across the country, physicians are meeting in groups to figure out how to communicate better with patients -- or risk having them walking out of their practice forever.

By Cheryl Jackson, AMNews staff. May 21, 2001.

Farmington, Minn. -- By her own account, she was a frustrated physician. Overwhelmed. Angry even. He, on the other hand, was generally happy. And he believed his patients were, as well.

But both were told they needed work in improving their rapport and communication with patients -- or risk losing them and the money they bring in.

Internist Judy Easley, MD, was told when the chief physician at her Bloomington, Minn., HealthPartners clinic suggested she attend a five-day physician-patient communication retreat to improve her efficiency.

"I didn't like what I was doing, and if there was something else I could do and could earn the same amount of money, I would have done it in a flash," said Dr. Easley, who works mostly with senior women.

Still, she didn't have a lot of faith that discussions about communication would make much of a difference. "I thought it was a bunch of hooey. I did not want to go," she said.

Lenny Snellman, MD, a HealthPartners pediatrician in the White Bear Lake, Minn., clinic, got the call after the communications program coordinator complained about a lack of pediatricians represented in an upcoming workshop.

"I told him I'd do it. But I told him I already communicate well. I don't really need it," Dr. Snellman said. "I was wrong."

Drs. Easley and Snellman sang different tunes. But now they're part of the same choir, one that has physicians across the country singing the praises of various workshops and short courses designed to help improve their abilities to communicate with patients. [...]