Harming Patient Satisfaction by Measuring It

The first time the social worker asked if she could check in with me was this past summer during chemo. We chatted some, and after a while she got up to leave. Then she parted the privacy curtain, stepped out, poked her head back in and said, “Oh, I forgot to ask. What are you most afraid of?”

Patients are often criticized for what are called “door handle comments” — those comments brought up as the health care provider is walking out of the room and already has one hand on the door. They are often doozies — a patient who has had a very straight-forward appointment might state that they have been having chest pain. Or a myriad of other disclosures that, had they been revealed earlier on, would have directed the appointment very differently.

Health care professionals do it, too.

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