When it comes to your health and well being, you want to make sure that the effects of poor communication in healthcare are not limiting your abilities to stay healthy.
Poor communication in any industry is going to lead to problems with serving clients and producing high-quality work.
However, in the healthcare industry, these problems are amplified tenfold. You are dealing people’s health and lives. When you have to prescribe medication and give diagnoses, there is zero room for error or miscommunication.
If English is your second language, you need to make sure that you can communicate with patients and staff clearly. There is a lot that can go wrong, as we’ll see.
In this blog, we’ll discuss the effects of poor communication in healthcare.
Effects of Poor Communication in Healthcare
No business ever wants to make mistakes when it comes to serving their clients. But in healthcare, your speaking mistakes can cost your patients their health, and possibly their life.
If you can’t communicate well, it can negatively affect your practice and potentially harm your patients.
Medical and Diagnosis Errors
When doctors, nurses, and other staff do not communicate effectively, medical errors are bound to happen.
One of these errors could be a misdiagnosis because a doctor may not have all the information needed to make a proper diagnosis. Doctors need to be aware of all symptoms and medical history to be able to diagnose correctly.
Another common error is giving wrong medication or giving the patient inaccurate information about what treatments they need.
To avoid these errors, always be sure to document everything medically relevant to a patient.
If your practice is poor at communicating with patients, it can lead to confusion and malpractice.
Conflict Among Staff
No matter what type of environment you work in, poor communication among staff is the number one reason for workplace conflict. You accent or language barrier can cause misunderstandings with your coworkers.
Nurses, doctors, management, and other employees need to be effectively communicating at all times to avoid potential conflict and inconsistent work.
Staff should be well aware of what their job duties are. If people are doing their job incorrectly due to poor communication, it will cause turmoil in your practice. This can lead to employee dissatisfaction and a decrease in productivity.
Long Wait Times for Patients
One of the most common complaints from patients about going to the doctor is long wait times. This is generally caused by a lack of communication among staff and poor scheduling.
There will be times when your office falls behind schedule due to situations out of your control. But the worst thing you can do is not properly communicate to your patients about the wait time.
If they’re going to be waiting an extra 30 minutes, they should be notified by the front desk. Otherwise, they’ll sit waiting and get more and more impatient as time passes.
For Additional Help
As you can see, the effects of poor communication in healthcare are undesirable. Are you having communication problems in your medical office due to language barriers? You can do something about it!
For more information on how to make sure that people understand you and how to improve your accent, please contact us today.
