Higher HCAHPS, Healthier Patients
The Highly-Satisfied
Patient SM
Clear PronunciationSM
- International Physicians Will Speak English Very Clearly
- Listeners Find Speakers Wi’lh Clearer English, Versus Those With More Heavily Aocented English, To Be:
- More Intelligent
- More Credible
- More Likable
- More Truthful
- More Qualified For Their Job
Cultural and Interpersonal IntelligenceSM
- Physicians Will Provide Culturally Nuanced Care to Diverse Patient Populations
- Patients Will Feel Comfortable And Know That Their Cultural values And Experiences Are Understood
- Physicians (American 8: International) Will Understand Subtle, Yet Extremely Important Verbal and Non-Verbal Elements of Communication That Have a Significant Effect On Patients and Colleagues
Strategic Questions & ExplanationsSM
- Physicians Will Elicit Symptoms And History More Effectively
- Physicians Will Describe Treatments In Ways that Patients Understand Clearly And Easily
- Physicians Will Speak In Ways That Lead To Better Patient Understanding And Increased Information Recall
Dr. Latterman’s Programs Are Underpinned By Linguistic And Medical Research,
And They Are Designed To Dramatically Increase:
- HCAHPS Scores
- Patient Satisfaction
- Health Outcomes
- Medication Adherence
- Information Recall
- Lower Readmission Rates
It is extremely important that your international nurses and physicians speak very clear English, because when international physicians and nurses have heavier accents, patients like them less and trust them less.
International accents are generally perceived negatively.
Subconsciously, people find speakers with heavier accents, versus more neutral accents, to be:
- Less Intelligent
- Less Credible
- Less Likable
- Less Truthful
- Less Qualified for their Job
When international speakers are able to speak very clear English, listeners find them to be:
- More Intelligent
- More Credible
- More Likable
- More Truthful
- More Qualified for their Job
Even though your international physicians and nurses may understand your patients without trouble, your patients will THINK they are having trouble since they themselves are having trouble
When your physicians speak very clear English:
- Patients will not struggle to understand them. This is important because struggling to understand a medical provider causes patients distress and concern, and lowers their satisfaction with the interactions
- Physicians will be more efficient due to fewer repetitions and fewer communication difficulties with patients. This will in turn positively affect their well-being and contentedness with their jobs
Bresnahan et al., 2002; Cargile et al., 1994; Derwing & Munro, 2009; Giles, 1970; Gluszek & Dovidio, 2010; Kinzler et al., 2009; Lev-Ari & Keysar, 2010; Lindemann, 2003; Lippi-Greene, 1994,1997; Wated & Sanchez, 2006;
Diversity & Cultural Intelligence
When patients feel like their culture or beliefs are not being respected, they feel like they as a person are not being respected. This ultimately has numerous deleterious consequences for their health and their medical experience.
Different patient populations perceive communication and interactions very differently. Providers must understand nuances between cultural expectations and norms and adjust their demeanor and care appropriately in order to achieve the best health outcomes and experiences.
For example: If the medication instructions a patient receives go against his cultural or spiritual beliefs, he will most likely not follow them. When providers learn what patients are and are not willing to do, treatment plans can be adjusted to be medically sound yet comfortable for the patient, which will dramatically affect their chances of adhering to the treatment plan.
Interpersonal Intelligence
Although various general communication skills are taught in medical schools and in hospitals, physicians are not being taught numerous essential linguistic skills that significantly impact communication with patients and how patients perceive them.
It is important that your patients like your physicians, not only to raise HCAHPS scores, but because when patients like their providers more, they then trust them more, and this makes them more likely to follow treatment instructions.
Do you have providers who “are brilliant physicians but lacking in bedside manner?”
Dr. Latterman can teach them to be more likable. This dramatically affects their interactions with patients in numerous ways, as well as patients’ experiences with them, and ultimately gives you the “brilliant physician with a great bedside manner.”
Additionally, it is important for physicians and nurses to get along well with each other. When all members of the team work well with each other a great deal of miscommunication, wasted time, and potentially severe medical consequences will be avoided.
The way in which physicians ask patients questions, describe treatment, explain discharge instructions, and communicate in general with patients and caregivers has an enormous impact on the patients’ feelings of satisfaction and trust in their physicians. Gathering and delivering information in linguistically nuanced ways, rooted in psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic principles, results in clearer communication that allows patients to follow the given instructions and achieve better health outcomes with greater overall satisfaction.
For example, one way to enhance information recall and increase medication adherence is to apply the principle of priming. Priming is a methodology that causes patients to associate one action with another.
Let’s say you want a patient to take a medication three times a day. In order to help the patient remember to take the medication at the prescribed times, you can prime them to remember by associating an action that is part of their regular daily routine with the action of taking the medication.
To prime the patient, ask her, “What do you normally eat for breakfast?” and let’s assume that she answers, “oatmeal.” You then say, “Okay, I want you to take this medication every morning when you eat your oatmeal.” This creates a mental representation of the two actions linked together, and linking these two events and actions will cause the patient to be more likely to remember to take her medication with her breakfast in the morning.
There are numerous ways that utilizing linguistic principles leads to better patient understanding, increased information recall, and ultimately better health outcomes and higher patient satisfaction.