Patient Experience Improvement

I spend a lot of my life inside the cardiac operating room. It’s a high-stakes arena with up to nine medical staff assuming different roles for the care of the patient: anesthesiologist, nurse anesthetist, perfusionist, circulating nurse, scrub technician, first assistant, cardiologist, and device rep, not to mention any medical students in training. As you read more…

Production pressure—the “overt or covert pressures and incentives on personnel to place production, not safety, as their primary priority”—is one of the highest threats to your level of patient care. As an anesthesiologist, here are three nonnegotiables I prioritize in the OR, no matter the external pressures. It was one of those lessons early in read more…

As a physician, I’ve had my fair share of moments that remind me why I do what I do. In these moments, I can’t help but remember everything I was taught regarding empathy in medicine. “Put yourself in your patient’s position,” I hear the mentors telling me from my medical school classes a decade ago. read more…

As a practicing or aspiring physician in a clinical setting, you understand the important role that medical consultations play in the everyday responsibilities of your job. Understanding how to manage a consultation and effectively communicate information can make all the difference. Let’s carefully break down a theoretical case study to master what it means to read more…

Effective communication and interpersonal skills are necessary for a well-functioning medical team. As a practicing or aspiring physician, it is your duty to set an example in proper communication for your team members.  Whether you’re a resident learning clinical duties or an attending physician, these strategies are sure to improve communication among your medical team. read more…

Starting day one of your residency, patients and attendings will have certain expectations of you. As a resident, it is crucial that you are proficient in communication to retrieve clinical questions in caring for patients, relay this to your attendings, and use evidence that will be used to address said medical concerns. Of course, skillfully read more…

Today we released a new Patient Experience Improvement Module, available to residency programs using the emergency medicine resident Qbank. The goal of this module is to equip providers with the interpersonal tools to enhance the patient experience. Formal education on this topic is lacking in most residency curricula, so we are introducing this to spark a new era in medical education where humanism and customer service in medicine are given special attention.