We live in the era where our patients have access to medical information and new developments in the medical field. Through newspapers, journals and the internet our patients get the new information much faster than we anticipate. This may be a good thing if we can guarantee that the source is authentic and related to the patient’s condition. We come across situations where our patients and their relatives discuss the diagnostic and the management steps that used to be only physician’s domain.
This was due to the fast proliferation of information as well as the access to the information by the patients and their relatives whenever and where ever needed. Patients access the information on the web, and they have no expertise in determining which information to trust and which to discard. It results in picking the information which gives them the best hope of a better outcome. Equipped with this info they come to the doctor and want to hear the similar information from the doctor. If the doctor says anything that is contrary to what they have learned then it creates mistrust between the patients and the physician.
Another sad outcome is that important time gets wasted and relationships are ruined. Eventually the doctor gets the blame of the bad outcome when they don’t follow the management that the patients thought was appropriate.
How to avoid this sad scenario? The answer may not be an easy one. The stakes are very high so, the patients are likely to believe a comforting lie compared with the painful truth. A mass education is not possible yet the disease load or the case burden continues to increase. The doctors are crunched with time as well as their level of frustration is high. So the right message does not get across. Both the physicians and the patients get frustrated.
There are several solutions for this problem and let me discuss them one by one.
Hiring staff to communicate can be an easy way of educating the patients as the staff of the doctor can develop good relationships with the patients and their relatives. This also spares the doctor’s time so the productivity may not be lost. The patients can still interact with the doctor but most of the questions can be dealt with by the staff.
Get the info in printed form. This is another way of educating the patients is that they can take the material and read it in the comfort of their home and can read it multiple times. It also can be used to educate more people as the printed material can potentially reach more people than any staff can reach out to. The limiting factor is that the patients may not be able to read the material, and they may not understand it. In that case, the staff of the doctor can come handy and do the reading for them.
Develop an informational website. This is a constant source of information and requires less input after the initial website development. Access to that site and the availability of the internet is the limiting factor.
Do group education. This is gaining popularity but logistically can be a problem in Pakistan. It is not easy to educate the people in mass as the level of education and the time at hand is the issue. The doctor may not spare his time as it will not result in generating any money upfront for the doctor. Also, it is a constant struggle and can only be beneficial for people who have baseline medical information.
Spare time themselves. This is the hardest thing to expect that the doctor will spare time himself to educate the patients. The doctors educate their patients, but that is a very brief education and the patients don’t have liberty for all the questions to be answered.
Not all the strategies work with all the patients and at times none of them work. But if we do any of the above, we can have better informed and satisfied patients who will be our advocates as well and they will promote the information strategies. We have come to realize that education is our biggest asset, and we need to use it to the full extent for our advantage. Our educated patients tend to make better decisions and stick to instructions better. This leads to better trust and less frustration. The drawback for the physician may be more than the usual expense of time with a decrease in the revenue in the short run, but more patient loads in the long run. For the patients there is nothing better than a concerned physician who keeps them involved and educates them.
Lastly, I wanted to say something about people who give advice without knowing the full facts and help pushing a situation from bad to worse. The last thing any doctor should do or he or she should never do is to advise someone without physically seeing them and without knowing the full history and the other facts about the patient. Your half true words of advice results in wrong decision making and have the potential to do more harm than any good. Please be considerate and careful.
You can get in touch with me at ERDOC@SHIFA.COM.PK.