Patient Care Improves When Doctors Know Each Other

Will patient care be better if the specialist knows the referred doctor? Yes, friendly relationships among physicians have a major impact on the quality of care.

Patients under the care of specialists who work together with the patient's primary care physicians (PCPs) reported being treated with a more concerned manner, finds new – sentence incomplete- published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

The findings suggest that strategies that encourage the formation of stronger peer relationships among physicians could lead to significant gains in the quality of patient care.

HL7 [Health Level 7]-Current Scenario-Standards-Benefits
By not having access to right information at the right place and the right time there is a definite impact on safety, effectiveness and costs related to healthcare.

‘A powerful peer effect may drive specialists to aspire to higher professional standards when they know a close colleague is involved.’

The analysis is based on electronic health records of more than 8,600 patients referred by their PCPs to see a specialist between 2016 and 2019.

Exploring the Therapeutic Potential of Friendliness in Doctor-to-Doctor Relationship

Researchers compared patients’ ratings of specialist care between two groups of patients — those seen by a specialist who trained with the patient’s PCP in medical school or postgraduate programs, and patients of the same PCP seen by a specialist who did not train with their PCP.

Importantly, they examined referrals that were distributed to specialists by a scheduling system rather than referrals where PCPs requested specific specialists. In this way, they were able to isolate the causal effect that might see if patients were randomized to specialists.

Interactions between PCPs and specialists are a bedrock of medicine, and specialty referrals are how a lot of downstream patient care gets shaped.

Evidence Based Medicine
Evidence Based Medicine combines research evidence with patient values and clinical skills to solve medical problems and improve patient outcome.

Given the communication and collaboration inherent in caring for referred patients, researchers were wondering whether prior PCP–specialist relationships influence that care, especially as experienced by patients.

Not only are patient experiences an important dimension of quality of care, but we thought they may also be responsive to physician efforts to demonstrate their professionalism given the medical profession’s emphasis on patient-centered care.

Teleradiology: Bringing Round-the-clock Patient Care to Your Doorstep
What is telemedicine and teleradiology all about? In this interview Medindia explores everything there is to gain from this much-hyped advance in healthcare assisted by Information Technology.

They found that patients referred to specialists by co-trainees rated their specialists higher on almost all dimensions we examined.

This includes not only interpersonal communication — such as friendliness, quality of explanations, and demonstrated concern — but also involvement in shared decision-making, use of understandable language, and amount of time spent.

Doctors Blame �Workload� For Lack of Quality of Care
Patients are at risk because their GP’s are struggling to provide safe and effective services.

In addition to higher patient ratings, co-training elicited changes in specialists’ medication-prescribing behavior, which suggests an impact beyond patient perception.

The existence of a strong peer relationship may remind specialists of commonly valued precepts of professionalism or otherwise motivate them to change care in ways that have a positive impact on patients. In the future, researchers may find more friendly ways of patient care.

Source-Eurekalert