December 5, 2020
The Aledade Advantage
Are conversations between doctors and patients the key to good health care? How well do doctors and patients actually talk to one another? In a 1984 study, Howard Beckman and Robert Frankel surveyed 74 practices and recorded how doctors listened and interacted with their patients. 77 percent of the time, physicians prevented their patients from completing an opening statement by asking questions about a specific concern. On average, it happened 18 seconds after the patient began talking.
Beckman and Frankel’s study was conducted in 1984, but the results resonated in a larger study by Lawrence Dyche and Deborah Swiderski in 2005. Physicians in that study asked a question during a patient’s opening statement in 72 percent of the visits, on average in 23 seconds. A quarter of doctors did not solicit patient questions at all.
The average doctor spends between 13 and 15 minutes with a patient. In only 15 minutes, the doctor and patient are supposed to discuss a full patient history, treatment plan and questions. The question at the root of this problem is why do doctors feel the need to rush?
The current fee-for-service system does not reward doctors for having long, detailed conversations with their patients. It incentivizes them to provide more treatments, because payment depends on quantity of care rather than quality of care. Understandably, this system is infuriating to both doctors and patients. However, the fee-for-service system is not the only healthcare model available to doctors.
At Aledade, we focus on helping doctors do their jobs the way that they want to – so that they can listen longer, ask deeper questions, and get more complete answers from patients without needing to rush through diagnoses and treatment plans. As you may have seen in some of our success stories on our blog we do this in many ways, most often by helping our partner practices effectively conduct Annual Wellness Visits (AWVs), Chronic Care Management (CCM), and Transitional Care Management (TCM). These stories highlight how value-based care and a patient-centered approach improves the patient-provider relationship and improves health outcomes.
Communication is the cornerstone of patient care. A report by the Joint Commission, an organization accredits healthcare programs and organizations, found that “communication failure was at the root of over 70 percent of serious adverse health outcomes in hospitals.” Aledade partner practices have learned the value of good communication between a doctor and a patient.
In 2015, Aledade’s ACOs decreased emergency department (ED) visit rates by 6 to 7 percent. The ED visit rate for the Medicare Fee-For-Service (FFS) population increased by 2.4 percent. Hospitalization rates decreased by 5 to 7 percent, while hospitalization rates for Medicare FFS populations increased by 2.4 percent. And Aledade’s ACOs decreased readmissions by 7 to 11 percent. Across Medicare FFS, readmissions increased by 8 to 9 percent.
What could account for the difference? For starters, AWV, TCM, and CCM all help practices catch problems earlier, and provide more consistent care. Annual Wellness Visits help to decrease ED visit rates by helping physicians identify high-risk patients and give them the tools they need to avoid a trip to the emergency room, saving on costly hospital bills. Transitional Care Management lowers readmission rates by helping patients stay out of the hospital when they’ve been discharged from the hospital.he Chronic Care Management program provides high risk patients with intensive ongoing care management support that decreases adverse health events, decreases readmissions and improves self-management skills.
If a provider has the space and time to listen to their patients, they can lay the foundation for mutually trusting and beneficial relationships. This trusting relationship is a key component in providing value-based care as it improves patient satisfaction and health outcomes. It all starts with a conversation, and it is more important than ever to really listen.