The trust crisis in healthcare : causes, consequences, and cures

• Main Author: Shore, David A.
• Format: eBook Book
• Language: English
• Published: New York Oxford University Press 2007
• Subjects: Delivery of Health Care > United States; Epidemiology; Medical care; Medical care > United States; Patient satisfaction; Patient Satisfaction > United States; Physician and patient; Physician-Patient Relations > United States; Public Health; Trust; Trust > United States; healthcare quality; healthcare business; patient-centered care; healthcare system; building trust; trust in healthcare; patient-physician relationship; trust crisis; medical communications; media and healthcare
• ISBN: 0195176367; 9780195176360
• DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195176360.001.0001

The lack of trust in the U.S. healthcare system brings ominous results, from decreasing health outcomes to increasing costs, from organizational inefficiencies to a pattern of litigation. The trust famine carries dire consequences if allowed to continue, but measures to regain trust are possible. This book provides a comprehensive survey of the causes and consequences of declining trust in healthcare, and provides suggestions for restoring trust. Part I describes the state of trust in society and in healthcare. Part II examines the impact of quality and safety on trust. Part III considers the relationship between medical communication and trust. Part IV suggests innovations which lead to building trust. Critical areas discussed include: the changing patient-physician relationship; systemic conditions that lead to medical errors; novel modes of interaction to improve satisfaction; definition of patient-centered care and metrics to evaluate its presence or absence; the sources of exaggerations in the media and on the internet; new standards for medical reporting; insights from clinical settings applied to concerns about the use of human subjects in biomedical research; recommendations for revising medical school curricula and strengthening the peer-review process in medical journals; and practical strategies for decreasing the lingering discord between patients, providers, and health plans. As healthcare professionals are now coming to realize what other professionals have known for years: trust is earned, not assumed. This book aims to demonstrate that trust-building is not only good medicine, but good business as well.