The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has a study which asked if “patient-physician communication examination scores in the clinical examination scores predicted future complaints in medical practice.”
Yep. They sure do.
The context described for the study: “Poor patient-physician communication increases the risk of patient complaints and malpractice claims. To address this problem, licensure assessment has been reformed in Canada and the United States, including a national standardized assessment of patient-physician communication and clinical history taking and examination skills,” the authors wrote. Patient complaints made to medical regulatory authorities were used as the authors’ definition of “complaint.”
The Patient Report September 5, 2007