How The Human Connection Improves Healthcare
[Music]
[Applause]
i wanted to be a doctor since i was six
years old
the human body fascinated me i watched
in awe
on tv and in the movies as doctors
performed these life-saving procedures
i entered medical school with a deep
desire to learn everything that i could
about the science of medicine
and how the human body worked but then
something happened to me
that made me realize that health care
was really broken
and gave me a new perspective on what
medicine was really about
it was the summer of 1996 i was just
completing my training
when i received a late evening phone
call from a desperate physician
to pick up an extremely sick newborn you
see the baby had a condition and his
only chance of survival
was to be placed on a heart lung bypass
machine immediately
when the team and i arrived we found a
critically ill baby
desperately clinging to life the parents
gave their son a quick kiss on the cheek
and off we went into the ambulance
lights and sirens blasting
by everyone’s estimate there wasn’t much
time
the ventilator was struggling to keep
the blood oxygenation levels up
and despite everything that we can do
the blood pressure and heart rate
continuously dropped
by the time we got back to my hospital
we were in full resuscitation mode
including cpr
but sadly time ran out and the baby died
it wasn’t much after that that the
charred nurse informed me that the
father had followed the ambulance and
was anxiously waiting for me in the
waiting room
completely unaware that his son had just
died
now the senior physician in charge that
night
was someone that i greatly admired let’s
for the sake of confidentiality call him
dr cunningham tim as everyone knew him
was the smartest kindest and most
compassionate doctor i had ever known
the kind of doctor that i wanted to be
like someday
i saw that tragedy that night as an
opportunity to learn a life lesson
you see although i was very confident in
my clinical abilities as a doctor
the thought of telling someone tragic
news still scared me to death
i mean how do you tell somebody that
their baby died
i thought who better to learn from than
dr cunningham
so together tim and i walked down the
hallway towards the waiting room we
opened up the door to find a father who
was frantically pacing back
and forth and then what happened next
was and still is decades later
inexplicable to me this kind
compassionate doctor that i had grown to
admire
simply blurted out my name’s dr
cunningham
your baby died
well the father he went crazy i remember
he punched a hole in the wall he knocked
the table lamp
over and he made a scream and a sound
that i had never heard before
after a few moments of discussion and
what seemed like hours of crying i took
the father to see his son
i spent a few minutes with him and then
i left him alone
when i walked back out into the hallway
dr cunningham was waiting for me
he grabbed me by my shoulders and he
pulled me in really close
and i can see that there were tears in
his eyes
and he said to me in this quivering firm
voice
do you see what i just did don’t ever
do that and he turned around walked down
the hallway onto the fire escape and
spent the next 20 minutes crying
you see i realized that night medicine’s
not about science or technology
medicine’s not just about how smart or
skilled you are as a physician
it’s not even about how kind you are as
a person
at its core medicine is about that human
to human interaction between a patient
and a doctor it’s about the ability to
convey your compassion
regardless of whether you’re delivering
tragic news or you’re meeting a patient
for the first time
but somehow we got away from that in the
united states alone we spend trillions
of dollars each year on health care and
the costs are steadily increasing
advances in medicine have led to
state-of-the-art diagnostic tools
and life-saving procedures and drugs
that were unimaginable just a few
decades ago
yet studies still show that a
significant number of patients
are still unhappy with their medical
provider
in a recent internet survey that we
performed
71 of patients who responded stated that
they often felt a lack of compassion
from their doctor
73 percent stated that they frequently
left the hospital
or doctor’s office feeling rushed and
without all their questions being
answered
and an amazing 39 percent stated that
they had such a bad interaction
that it led them to change providers
the system’s just not working medicine
has become more and more about increased
documentation electronic medical records
and maximized efficiency doctors and
nurses
are being asked to do more and more work
in less and less time
professional burnout among doctors and
nurses is at an
all-time high and did you know
that doctors now have the highest rate
of suicide of any profession
this has unknowingly and unwillingly
caused us to become task oriented
instead of what we should be
patient oriented the good news is
that together you and i we can begin to
fix health care right now
not by spending loads of money but by
simply getting back
to what really matters did you know that
a patient
who feels a connection with their doctor
even if they met them for the first time
is more likely to take their medicine
more likely to follow up and yes have
better treatment outcomes
that’s why a medical provider’s ability
to communicate and build trust
is more important than ever so as a
doctor
how do i begin to build that trust well
it starts off by first
being a relatable person and a doctor
second
you know my mother used to say to me all
the time she used to say anthony
it’s hard to fire your best friend no
matter how successful i became she’d
constantly remind me she’d say
don’t forget it’s hard to fire your best
friend
i used to think why is my mother always
so afraid i’m going to get fired
it wasn’t until much later that i
realized what she was saying
in her own way my mother was telling me
to be nice to everyone
but more importantly she was telling me
to get to know everyone
not just on a professional basis but on
a personal level as well
it’s so important for doctors and nurses
to take just a few minutes to get to
know their patients each and every time
and build rapport
because once rapport is built trust will
follow
systems they’re designed for the masses
but medicine only works when doctors can
treat patients
as people one at a time
good health care starts and ends with
good communication
so if you’re a doctor and you’re feeling
rushed maybe becoming task oriented just
stop
recognize it sit down put your laptop
aside and just
get to know your patient imagine that
you’re the patient
put yourself in their shoes and your
natural compassion will just flow
because
once you can connect as two relatable
people
or as my mother would say as best
friends
that’s where medicine works its best
now you might be asking what can i do as
a patient to make sure i get the very
best health care
well the most important thing is to know
that your health care is more important
than any system you control your
healthcare because you
can control the conversation it’s okay
to expect that personal connection
with every doctor or nurse that you meet
even if you met them for the first time
so here’s the secret
next time you go to the doctor or the
hospital unless it’s an emergency
don’t talk medicine share something
personal first
if your doctor seems preoccupied or
rushed
that’s okay ask them how their day’s
going
tell them about a recent vacation you
went on and asked them if they’ve had a
recent one
ask them if they saw the game yesterday
i’ll be willing to bet that if you do
that
you’ll see your doctor relax perhaps
even smile
once you can connect and build that
commonality
the conversation will go so much better
we have a choice we can continue on this
path
to impersonal health care or we can get
back to what really matters
a trusting relationship between two
relatable people with one goal in mind
your health thank you