Affordability and accessibility top the list of most consumer and patient surveys, but another commonly cited desire is quality.
Quality, for patients, is not defined by awards or achievement of certain metrics. Rather, it is defined as having a “deeply personal, relationship-oriented delivery of care,” according to the 2024 National Consumer Survey Series. Key to creating that quality is a “doctor who listens.” The survey also reveals that a doctor who listens is the top indicator for when a patient knows they are receiving quality care and for when they trust their healthcare provider.
This preference and value for interpersonal connectivity is notable because patients also are highly receptive and accepting of virtual care models, particularly post-pandemic. More than half of patients are even more satisfied with virtual health care than in-person care, according to a recent McKinsey & Company analysis. In patients’ minds, then, virtual care and a deeply personal provider-patient relationship are not just compatible, they are sought after and valued.
For healthcare professionals, the takeaway from these patient values is to make sure that our compassion, our curiosity and interest in our patients’ lives, and our desire to create a relationship are not lost or inhibited when we insert a screen into the physician-patient encounter.
Without an intentional approach to breaking through the screen to connect with patients, the phone or computer can serve instead as a barrier, impeding connectivity, creating distance and separation, and inhibiting relationship.
Breaking through the screen to connect with patients is particularly vital for inpatient telemedicine, used by about 75 percent of hospitals in some capacity. Hospitalized patients are sicker, often anxious and experiencing high levels of uncertainty, and may be isolated from family and friends. Forming a connection with them quickly and maintaining a relationship of trust over the duration of their hospitalization are essential.
There are three key steps to breaking through the screen to establish and maintain a healthy, productive telemedicine provider-patient relationship.
- Convey Professionalism Physicians have a sacred role. In an inpatient setting, we are entrusted with another human life at one of their most vulnerable moments. Awareness of this immense responsibility requires providers always to convey professionalism of the highest standard in comportment, appearance, preparedness, and speech.
- Meaningfully Demonstrate Empathy and Friendliness.
Demonstrating professionalism while also being approachable is key. Professional does not mean formal or rigid.
In a traditional inpatient encounter, a patient would receive a physician coming into their room when they knock on the door, introduce themselves, approach the bedside, and shake hands or touch a shoulder. With virtual consultations, those small, but meaningful, gestures are not available, and without an intentional approach, an on-screen appearance could be experienced as abrupt or intrusive. Taking the time to make the introduction, acknowledge the patient and their family, and engage in a few minutes of relevant, personalized social conversation eases the transition.
Similarly, when we can’t lay a comforting hand on an arm, offer a tissue, or otherwise be physically demonstrative in ways that traditionally convey care and compassion, we must find other ways to demonstrate our care if a patient is experiencing a difficult moment.
- Take Time. And More Time. And Then More Time.
Telemedicine encounters can, and should, take longer than a traditional in-person encounter. The goal is to facilitate inter-personal connectivity, answer patient questions about what may be a novel way of engaging with their healthcare professional, and ensure the treatment plan and next steps are understood. A patient should come away feeling seen, heard, and looking forward to the next encounter.
The goal is not efficiency at the expense of effectiveness.
With virtual healthcare delivery increasingly prevalent, and various technologies and automations more commonly used in patient care functions, this imperative to break through the screen is not nice to have. It’s a must have to deliver quality care, as patients define it.
In an increasingly digital healthcare world, analog skills take on even greater importance. Sir William Osler, the renowned 19th century physician and co-founding professor of Johns Hopkins Hospital, described the difference between a good physician and a great one as, “[the] good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease.”
Maintaining that hallmark of a great physician means both embracing technology and prioritizing the attributes that foster a deeply personal physician-patient relationship.
