Becker's Hospital Review

36 CMO / CARE DELIVERY 10 things emergency department patients want during a hospital stay By Megan Knowles T o improve patient experience, hospi- tals need to act on patient feedback, Peter Pronovost, MD, PhD, and se- nior vice president for clinical safety at Min- netonka, Minn.-based UnitedHealthcare, wrote in a blog post for Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Medicine's Armstrong Insti- tute for Patient Safety and Quality. Dr. Pronovost helped compile "patient wish lists" using the most common pieces of feed- back the hospital received from patient let- ters or surveys. e Johns Hopkins Hospital Patient and Family Advisory Council devel- oped individual patient wish lists to speak to their own patient populations' specific needs, including ED patients, a spokesperson for Johns Hopkins Medicine told Becker's Hospi- tal Review. Here are 10 things adult emergency depart- ment patients said they wanted from clini- cians during their time at the hospital: 1. Communication in a caring and em- pathetic manner. Clinicians should try to walk in patients' shoes, even in a brief con- versation, to better understand their needs. 2. Communication about comfort. ED patients want to stay as comfortable as possible while waiting for care. Clinicians should offer them blankets, nour- ishment if allowed and an ear to hear their concerns. 3. Communication about their results. Patients oen are eager to learn their lab tests and procedure results, as well as their medical status and admission/discharge ex- pectations. Clinicians can reassure patients by keeping them fully updated or even by telling them the results are still in review. 4. Communication about medication. Hospital staff should be clear about what medication ED patients will receive, as well as when to expect it, how much, how oen and possible side effects. 5. Communication about next steps and delays. Clinicians should be aware that time passes slowly for ED patients wait- ing for updates and tests results and regular- ly inform them of any changes. 6. Communication about nourishment. If clinicians offer patients nourishment, they should tell them when they can expect to re- ceive it. 7. Communication when they use the call button. When patients must wait a long time to get a response from clinicians, it can add to their stress. A prompt response shows respect for patients' needs. 8. Communication in layman's terms. Medical terminology can sound like a for- eign language to patients. Clinicians should take care to speak in terms that are easy to understand. 9. Communication both verbal and nonverbal. Actions and words show pa- tients that hospital staff aims for a high stan- dard of care. Staff social chatter, banter and unprofessional behavior can add to patients' stress. 10. Communication that is patient and complete. Clinicians should ask patients if they have any questions aer giving them medical information. n Same-sex and cardiothoracic surgical teams are riddled with most conflict, study finds By Harrison Cook H ierarchies and gender dynamics can influence the amount of conflict present in an operating room, according to a study published in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences. Researchers at Emory University in Atlanta and Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente observed 200 surger- ies, logging social interactions between clinical team members to assess gender dynamics and hierarchies, which can contribute to team conflict while operating on patients. Lead study author Laura Jones, PhD, a medical anthropolo- gist at Emory, told STAT her team was surprised by how dif- ferent one operating room dynamic could be from another, just based on who was in the room. Dr. Jones' observations, taken from 6,348 social interac- tions, revealed a team's gender balance served as the main source of conflict within operating rooms. Conflict sur- faced more frequently when male surgeons worked with male-dominated surgical teams, while operations were more smooth and contained less yelling when the surgeon was female or when male surgeons worked in female-dom- inated groups. "Much of what stresses them out is petty little things and interpersonal relationships," Dr. Jones told STAT. The level of conflict in the OR also varied by specialty, with cardiothoracic surgical teams demonstrating the most con- flict. However, researchers said it was important to note the gender composition within each specialty. For exam- ple, more than 95 percent of cardiothoracic surgeries were dominated by men. Orthopedic and neurosurgery teams also were mainly comprised of men, while gynecology de- partments mainly staffed women. "With more men in the room, the probability of coopera- tion dropped — especially when the attending surgeon was a man as well," according to STAT. n

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