Improving Communication—Improving Care How health care organizations can ensure effective, patient-centered communication with people from diverse populations
Ethical Force Consensus Report (PDF, 1198KB, requires Adobe® Reader®)
Consensus Report Executive Summary (PDF, 56KB)
This report describes the importance of communication to health care and how organizations can take steps to ensure effective, patient-centered communication. The report is the first product of the Ethical Force Program's initiative on patient-centered communication. Improving communication is not only a significant goal on its own, but the relationship of communication to health care quality, patient safety, informed consent and other topics should make it a critical priority in every health care organization.
This report separates organizational performance into six main areas and three subareas. Within organizations, quality improvement efforts to promote patient-centered communication could focus on any or all of these interrelated areas.
- Understand your organization's commitment
- Collect information
- Engage communities
- Develop workforce
- Engage individuals
- Sociocultural context
- Language
- Health literacy
- Evaluate performance.
This report lists a number of specific, measurable expectations for performance in each of these areas—more than 50 in all. Organizations can use these performance expectations as a framework for evaluating performance and a guide for improving communication quality.
For more information, or to order a copy of this report: The Ethical Force Program 515 N. State St. Chicago, IL 60654 Phone: (312) 464-5260 Fax: (312) 464-4613 EthicalForce@ama-assn.org
Content provided by: Institute for Ethics