At the Intersection of Health, Health Care and Policy Cite this article as: Cynthia H. Ho Listening To Our Patients' Concerns Health Affairs, 32, no.11 (2013):2059 doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2013.1099
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Health Affairs is published monthly by Project HOPE at 7500 Old Georgetown Road, Suite 600, Bethesda, MD 20814-6133. Copyright © 2013 by Project HOPE - The People-to-People Health Foundation. As provided by United States copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code), no part of Health Affairs may be reproduced, displayed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or by information storage or retrieval systems, without prior written permission from the Publisher. All rights reserved.
Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution Downloaded from content.healthaffairs.org by Health Affairs on June 7, 2015 at UNIV OF ARIZONA
Letters There is a limit of 300 words for letters to the editor. Health Affairs reserves the right to edit all letters for clarity, length, and tone. Letters can be submitted by e-mail, [email protected], or the Health Affairs website, http:// www.healthaffairs.org.
doi:
10.1377/hlthaff.2013.1099
Listening To Our Patients’ Concerns I read Maria Maldonado’s Narrative Matters essay (Aug 2013) on a Thursday evening after another long day at the clinic, and I was reminded of the importance of slowing down and listening to our patients. So often in busy clinics, we physicians enter our patient encounters with predetermined agendas. We have well-intentioned mental checklists of things to do and ticking stopwatches in our heads reminding us that there is not enough time to do them all. We speak of increasing blood pressure medications, decreasing fast food intake, and increasing activity levels, and our patients nod silently. It seems that inevitably, at the end of the visit, we are handed yet another form to complete, such as a request for child care assistance, food bank access, and jury duty deferment. Working at one of the largest academic and public safety-net hospitals in the United States, I often care for people who lack access to basic needs.
My patients’ concerns include finding places to spend the night and providing for families of three to four generations. They make choices between buying their next meal, paying for their children to participate in high school sports, or filling their prescriptions for their medications. Needless to say, they enter our rooms with very different agendas than ours and in the hope that we can help them. Whether the result is sitting down and listening for an extra ten minutes or filling out another form, to make sure that our patients are heard and supported, I urge my residents and colleagues to start their visits with this simple introduction: “Hello. I am your doctor. What can I help you with today?” Our patients’ concerns may not be the top item on our list of problems, but they are important to the patients, and that is what ultimately matters. Only after our patients feel heard and supported can healing relationships begin. Cynthia H. Ho Los Angeles County and University of Southern California Medical Center LOS ANGELES , CALIFORNIA
NOVEMBER 2013
32:11
Downloaded from content.healthaffairs.org by Health Affairs on June 7, 2015 at UNIV OF ARIZONA
H ea lt h A f fai r s
2 059
The online version of this article, along with updated information and services, is available at: http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/32/11/2059.2.full.html
For Reprints, Links & Permissions: http://healthaffairs.org/1340_reprints.php E-mail Alerts : http://content.healthaffairs.org/subscriptions/etoc.dtl To Subscribe: http://content.healthaffairs.org/subscriptions/online.shtml
Health Affairs is published monthly by Project HOPE at 7500 Old Georgetown Road, Suite 600, Bethesda, MD 20814-6133. Copyright © 2013 by Project HOPE - The People-to-People Health Foundation. As provided by United States copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code), no part of Health Affairs may be reproduced, displayed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or by information storage or retrieval systems, without prior written permission from the Publisher. All rights reserved.
Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution Downloaded from content.healthaffairs.org by Health Affairs on June 7, 2015 at UNIV OF ARIZONA
Letters There is a limit of 300 words for letters to the editor. Health Affairs reserves the right to edit all letters for clarity, length, and tone. Letters can be submitted by e-mail, [email protected], or the Health Affairs website, http:// www.healthaffairs.org.
doi:
10.1377/hlthaff.2013.1099
Listening To Our Patients’ Concerns I read Maria Maldonado’s Narrative Matters essay (Aug 2013) on a Thursday evening after another long day at the clinic, and I was reminded of the importance of slowing down and listening to our patients. So often in busy clinics, we physicians enter our patient encounters with predetermined agendas. We have well-intentioned mental checklists of things to do and ticking stopwatches in our heads reminding us that there is not enough time to do them all. We speak of increasing blood pressure medications, decreasing fast food intake, and increasing activity levels, and our patients nod silently. It seems that inevitably, at the end of the visit, we are handed yet another form to complete, such as a request for child care assistance, food bank access, and jury duty deferment. Working at one of the largest academic and public safety-net hospitals in the United States, I often care for people who lack access to basic needs.
My patients’ concerns include finding places to spend the night and providing for families of three to four generations. They make choices between buying their next meal, paying for their children to participate in high school sports, or filling their prescriptions for their medications. Needless to say, they enter our rooms with very different agendas than ours and in the hope that we can help them. Whether the result is sitting down and listening for an extra ten minutes or filling out another form, to make sure that our patients are heard and supported, I urge my residents and colleagues to start their visits with this simple introduction: “Hello. I am your doctor. What can I help you with today?” Our patients’ concerns may not be the top item on our list of problems, but they are important to the patients, and that is what ultimately matters. Only after our patients feel heard and supported can healing relationships begin. Cynthia H. Ho Los Angeles County and University of Southern California Medical Center LOS ANGELES , CALIFORNIA
NOVEMBER 2013
32:11
Downloaded from content.healthaffairs.org by Health Affairs on June 7, 2015 at UNIV OF ARIZONA
H ea lt h A f fai r s
2 059
