Communication matters -: Deficits in hospital care from the patients' perspective

The importance of professional communication for nursing staff and physicians is increasingly accepted. In order to support this tendency it would be helpful to investigate whether this development does reflect an actual need from the patients' perspective. The current investigation reports on the results of a questionnaire survey in 668 patients (79% response rate) from two tertiary Swiss hospitals. Questionnaires were sent out two weeks after discharge from hospital. The questionnaire is mainly asking reporting"-type questions, which ask a patient to describe what actually had happened and not to evaluate his or her experiences. Results show a high acceptance of the somewhat lengthy questionnaire (mean time to fill in the questionnaire: about one hour). Main deficits were concerned with a lack in communication competence in nurses and physicians: 18 out of 23 deficits mentioned by more than 10% of patients' were in this area. The questionnaire describes deficits precisely enough to yield significant differences between single wards.