Show 1088: How Good Communication Makes Health Care Better
The People's Pharmacy
Joe and Terry Graedon
4.6 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 28 July 2017
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When your doctor speaks, do you understand what you are hearing? Do you know how to describe your health problem so your doctor will “get it”?
Why Communication Is Critical:
Communication between doctors and patients is at the heart of health care. It is essential for accurate diagnosis, and crucial for patients to understand the treatment being offered so they can follow it. Doctors may need to listen especially carefully to learn the reasons that a patient decided not to follow through.
The Value of Clear Communication:
Despite time pressure, careful communication can help reduce medical errors. Even when errors occur, honest explanations and apologies reduce the likelihood of malpractice suits.
How can you learn to communicate your questions and concerns more clearly? Dr. Danielle Ofri offers advice.
This Week’s Guest:
Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD, is a physician at Bellevue Hospital, the oldest public hospital in the country, and associate professor of medicine at NYU. She writes about medicine and the doctor-patient connection for the New York Times, and other publications.
Dr. Ofri is co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Bellevue Literary Review, the first literary journal to arise from a medical setting. She is the author of a collection of books about the world of medicine. Dr. Ofri’s most recent book is What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear. You can sign up to receive her monthly newsletter about medicine and the doctor-patient connection at DanielleOfri.com
Listen to the Podcast:
The podcast of this program will be available the Monday after the broadcast date. The show can be streamed online from this site and podcasts can be downloaded for free. CDs may be purchased at any time after broadcast for $9.99.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Joe Graydon. |
| 0:02.3 | I'm Terry Graydon. |
| 0:03.8 | Welcome to this podcast of the People's Pharmacy, where we bring you the stories behind the health headlines. |
| 0:10.2 | This podcast is brought to you by Redux Industries, makers of utterly smooth body cream. |
| 0:16.0 | 800-345-7339 on the web at utter cream.com. |
| 0:29.6 | Have you ever felt frustrated trying to explain troubling symptoms to a doctor? |
| 0:36.3 | Where you interrupted mid-story. |
| 0:39.4 | This is the People's Pharmacy with Terry and Joe Graydon. |
| 0:48.1 | Good communication between doctors and patients is crucial for proper diagnosis and treatment. |
| 0:56.3 | How can patients make themselves heard? What should you do if you get interrupted? |
| 1:01.3 | Dr. Danielle Ophrey has been writing about doctor-patient communication for years. She has some |
| 1:07.0 | important advice. Be clear as a patient what you need and what's important, |
| 1:12.3 | and that if you're not getting that, to really ask for that and stand your ground. |
| 1:16.5 | Coming up on the People's Pharmacy, Dr. Danielle Lofrey will share her insights from her latest book, |
| 1:22.0 | What Patients Say, What Doctors Here. |
| 1:25.6 | First, this news. |
| 1:30.3 | In the People's pharmacy health headlines, |
| 1:33.3 | couples that want children may be having more difficulty. |
| 1:37.4 | A new meta-analysis shows that sperm counts among men around the world |
| 1:41.4 | have dropped dramatically since the 1970s. The analysis included data from |
| 1:46.7 | 185 studies with approximately 42,000 men participating in them between 1973 and 2011. According to these |
| 1:56.8 | data, sperm counts declined by just over 50 percent in Europe, Australia, and North America. No similar |
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