restoring trust in healthcare
Trust in healthcare professionals and the system in general has eroded over the past several years and decades. How do we restore trust and improve health outcomes?
It has been well documented that public trust in the healthcare system, including healthcare providers, has been decreasing over the past several decades. This deterioration may have progressed at a greater pace over the past few years. While trust has decreased, it has also been well established that better health outcomes and quality of life are associated with greater levels of trust in healthcare professionals. There tends to be differences in the degree of trust on the basis or demographics and socioeconomic status. Given these considerations, it is clear that restoring trust in the system, and healthcare professionals in particular, is important and of benefit to us all.
Improving trust within the healthcare system requires not only an increase in trust towards healthcare professionals but also from providers towards their patients. This is further described by Schleifer and Beach to be of benefit in order to provide information, participate in shared decision making, and follow treatment recommendations. There may also be a difference in the degree of trust on the part of the providers on the basis of demographics and socioeconomic status.
The rationale for investing in improving trust amongst patients and healthcare professionals is the associated improvements in health-related outcomes, increased patient satisfaction, and decreased risk of provider burnout and healthcare costs.
Schleifer and Beach recommended four areas for emphasis in order to improve trust within the healthcare system. They suggested that education be utilized to build trust by increasing recognition of biases. This awareness includes conversations and discussions between healthcare professionals, with patients, as well as in the content and wording of documentation within the medical records. Avoiding language that is derogatory or reinforcing of stereotypes is particularly important. In addition, they recommend sharing of medical documentation with patients, measuring trust through surveys in order to establish the starting point of the improvement process and tracking change over time, and seeking to improve trust amongst all aspects and stages of the patient experience through the healthcare system, including scheduling, understanding of insurance benefits, and follow-up.
In addition to these important considerations, it is worthwhile to emphasize the information that is provided by healthcare professionals to their patients. The quality and reliability of the information, as well as the readiness or reluctance on the part of the provider to acknowledge errors can all greatly affect the degree of trust. Informing patients of pertinent diagnoses and treatment options is crucial to establishing trust within the patient-provider relationship. To the greatest extent possible, current and accurate evidence-driven information should be presented and areas of uncertainty readily acknowledged. This should be extended to the informed consent process for treatment which includes not only the provision of pertinent information so that the patient can make a truly informed decision, but also to the removal of potential coercion in the decision making process. The incorporation of evidence-driven content is also important on health-related social media platforms, particularly considering the greater distribution and reach of content through these platforms.
The process of rebuilding trust within the healthcare system should focus not only on the healthcare professionals but also the hospitals and administrative staff. All levels of the system must be included within this process and, in order for trust to be truly fostered and developed amongst all stakeholders, there must be open and respectful dialogue between all those involved. The respective experience and perspective of all those involved must be considered and discussions should ideally be as open and transparent as possible.
One additional aspect to improving trust within the system involves developing health-related social medial platforms that engage patients and include them in their health through incorporation of current and accurate evidence-driven information and recommendations. The healthcare trained social media management and content development provided by House Call Media provides this paradigm and is, therefore, a key component to rebuilding trust within the healthcare system.
To learn more about healthcare trained social media management and evidence-driven content development for health-related platforms, please visit www.housecallmedia.com.
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To learn more about the healthcare trained services provided by House Call Media, please visit www.housecallmedia.com.
REFERENCES
Schleifer D, Beach MC. How Healthcare Leaders Can help Rebuild Trust. Modern Healthcare, Nov 2, 2021. https://www.modernhealthcare.com/opinion-editorial/how-healthcare-leaders-can-help-rebuild-trust