They say respect is a two-way street, and if a new Consumer Reports survey is any indication, that street is paved with better, safer medical care.
The survey findings are detailed in a report called "How Not to Get Sick(er) in the Hospital." The publication polled 1,200 people who were hospitalized in the last six months and found that those who rarely felt respected by healthcare workers were two and a half times more likely to fall victim to a medical error than those who reported they were treated well.
Consumer Reports defined respectful behavior on the part of medical staff as communicating effectively, showing compassion, honoring patients' wishes and acknowledging mistakes, and used "medical errors" as a catch-all term to include hospital-acquired infections, medication mistakes, misdiagnoses and other preventable adverse events. Of the patients polled, 29 percent reported experiencing a medical error, echoing the danger highlighted by a previous FierceHealthcare report that medical errors are now the third leading cause of death in the United States.
Read the full article here.
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