In the study, researchers analyzed Medicare data on over 1.5 million hospital visits between 2011 and 2014. What they found were small but significant differences between men and women physicians’ hospital mortality rates and readmission rates. In other words, patients of female providers were less likely to die within a year of treatment and were less likely to be readmitted to the hospital within one month of discharge. The researchers estimated that if male doctors achieved the same outcomes as females, about a 0.5 percent improvement, it would save 32,000 lives a year. That’s a big number that’s sure to grab the attention of any healthcare expert looking to improve health outcomes.
The study’s results have spurred clinicians to ask an important question: what are women doing differently to get better results? Previous studies have found that women physicians more frequently adhere to evidence-based medicine and procedures, are more likely to follow recommendations about prevention counseling, and are more likely to order preventative tests like pap smears and mammograms. All of those factors may be contributing to the difference in outcomes, but there are no conclusive studies that link those practices to better health results.
Doctors and journalists have also suggested another potential key to the puzzle: patient-centered communication.
“This study shows us — just possibly — that if female doctors, on average, communicate better, their style might be more effective in treating disease and preventing death,” Doctor Sarah-Anne Henning Schumann says in an NPR discussion on All Things Considered.
But do women physicians really have better communication? Fortunately, I have access to data that can help answer that question. I work as a data scientist for a company that measures patients’ perceptions of their healthcare experience. At MedStatix, we’ve surveyed over 1 million patients in the U.S. to get feedback on their healthcare providers about everything from wait times, to waiting room facilities, to, you guessed it, communication.
The Harvard study on women physicians and health outcomes got us thinking, how do women score on communication compared to men in our patient satisfaction surveys? We looked at over one million individual patient visits with more than 19,000 providers and sure enough, women beat men on all seven of our communication metrics—from spending enough time with patients to explaining things clearly to involving patients in healthcare decisions. We have no magic bullet that establishes communication as the key factor driving better outcomes for female doctors, but there’s no doubt that female doctors are perceived by patients to be better communicators.
Also interesting, female doctors consistently scored better than men on communication by 0.5 percent or more—a strikingly similar disparity to the one found in the Harvard study.
In addition to our data, according to a 2004 study that looks at 26 studies between 1967 and 2001, female doctors tend to have longer visits than male doctors and engage in more “patient-centered” communication.
Communication, the study says, has been shown in various studies to be associated with a number of positive outcomes, including patient and physician satisfaction, indicators of disease control, and enhanced physical and mental health status.
Now, with the addition of the Harvard study and our communication data, we might infer that communication skills can also be associated with better mortality and readmission rates.
That means that the power of communication could potentially save lives. But to reach such a strong conclusion, more studies are needed to link communication to improved health outcomes.
Until then, we can also rely on common sense to assert that better doctor communication is better for patients, and at a minimum it helps to set the stage for better health outcomes. Physicians who can listen, explain, and empathize are more likely to gain meaningful insight into patients’ problems and are therefore better equipped to help address those problems.
The views, opinions and positions expressed within these guest posts are those of the author alone and do not represent those of Becker’s Hospital Review/Becker’s Healthcare. The accuracy, completeness and validity of any statements made within this article are not guaranteed. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions or representations. The copyright of this content belongs to the author and any liability with regards to infringement of intellectual property rights remains with them.
