Shared Decision-Making Improves Patient Satisfaction

Effective communication is the foundation of the physician-patient relationship. Shared decision-making is considered a useful tool for engaging patients to actively participate in their medical care. A recent study in the Annals of Emergency Medicine took this concept a step further and explored the use of shared decision-making and perceptions of fault and liability in the face of an adverse outcome.

As reported by HealthLeaders, researchers found that study participants exposed to shared decision-making reported “higher trust, rated their physicians more highly and were less likely to fault their physicians for the adverse outcome compared with those exposed to no decision-making.”

The researchers also noted that there are three primary barriers to shared decision-making:

• finding the time for the conversation;
• discussing all the options and exploring patient preferences; and
• encouraging patient participation.

MLMIC encourages all healthcare providers to engage their patients in meaningful shared decision-making not only in the face of an adverse outcome but as a way to foster quality of care and patient satisfaction.