醫生要學習與患者溝通大綱
BETSY came to Dr. Martin for a second — or rather, a sixth — opinion. Over a year, she had seen five other physicians for a “rapid heartbeat” and “feeling stressed.” After extensive testing, she had finally been referred for psychological counseling for an anxiety disorder.
貝蒂來找馬丁醫生是想問問第二個大夫的意見——實際上是第六個。在過去一年裏，因爲“心動過速”和“受迫感”的問題，她諮詢過五位醫生。在經過大量的檢查後，醫生最終建議她去做焦慮症方面的心理諮詢。
The careful history Dr. Martin took revealed that Betsy was taking an over-the-counter weight loss product that contained ephedrine. (I have changed their names for privacy’s sake.) When she stopped taking the remedy, her symptoms also stopped. Asked why she hadn’t mentioned this information before, she said she’d “never been asked.” Until then, her providers would sooner order tests than take the time to talk with her about the problem.
馬丁醫生仔細地詢問病史，終於得知貝蒂當時正在服用一種減肥用的非處方藥，其中含有麻黃鹼。（爲了保護隱私，文中用了化名。）停止服用這種藥物後，她的症狀也就消失了。在被問到過去爲什麼沒有提過這件事時，她說，“從來沒人問過。”在那以前，她的醫生都會很快讓她去做檢查，而不是花時間和她談病情。
Betsy’s case was fortunate; poor communication often has much worse consequences. A review of reports by the Joint Commission, a nonprofit that provides accreditation to health care organizations, found that communication failure (rather than a provider’s lack of technical skill) was at the root of over 70 percent of serious adverse health outcomes in hospitals.
貝蒂的情況還算幸運，溝通不暢常常會導致更惡劣的後果。非營利組織“醫療機構認證聯合委員會”(Joint Commission)發佈的一份報告指出，醫院中發生的嚴重不良健康後果中，有逾70%的根源在於溝通不暢（而不是醫護人員欠缺專業技能）。
A doctor’s ability to explain, listen and empathize has a profound impact on a patient’s care. Yet, as one survey found, two out of every three patients are discharged from the hospital without even knowing their diagnosis. Another study discovered that in over 60 percent of cases, patients misunderstood directions after a visit to their doctor’s office. And on average, physicians wait just 18 seconds before interrupting patients’ narratives of their symptoms. Evidently, we have a long way to go.
醫生能否解釋、傾聽、與患者產生共鳴，對於病人的診療有着深遠的影響。然而一項調查發現，有三分之二的病人在不知道診斷結果的情況下，就被要求出院了。另一項研究發現，在超過60%的病例中，患者在問診後誤解了醫生的指示。醫生平均只會等18秒，就會打斷患者對症狀的陳述。顯然，我們有很長的路要走。
Three years ago, my colleagues and I started a program in Harrisburg designed to improve doctors’ communication with their patients. This large urban hospital system serves a city with a population of about 50,000, together with the surrounding metropolitan area of more than 550,000 people.
三年前，我和同事在賓夕法尼亞州哈里斯堡啓動了一個旨在改善醫患溝通的項目。這個規模龐大的城市醫院系統，爲本市大約5萬人口提供服務，同時也面向周邊城市羣共計超過55萬的居民。
The hospital faces particular challenges: The city has a high poverty rate (32 percent, compared with the state average of 13 percent), and the metro area has a high rate of childhood obesity. Over all, nearly a third of people around Harrisburg are uninsured, compared with about one in 10 for the rest of Pennsylvania.
醫院面臨着一些特殊的挑戰：這座城市貧困率極高（達32%，與之相對比，全州平均水平爲13%），所在城區的兒童肥胖率也很高。總體而言，哈里斯堡及周邊人口中，有近三分之一沒有醫療保險，而賓夕法尼亞州其他地區的這一比例則約爲十分之一。
Our project started with a simple baseline assessment of how we as doctors communicated with our patients. Observation soon revealed that physicians introduced themselves on only about one in four occasions. And without an introduction, it’s no surprise that patients could correctly identify their physician only about a quarter of the time.
項目開始時，我們對醫生與患者的溝通狀況做了一個簡單的基準評估。通過觀察，我們很快就發現，只有大約四分之一的情況，醫生會向患者做自我介紹。既然沒有做自我介紹，另一個現象也就不奇怪了：僅有大約四分之一的情況，患者能正確指出給自己診斷的醫生是誰。
Brief, rushed physician encounters were common, with limited opportunity for questions. A lack of empathy was often apparent: In one instance, after a tearful patient had related the recent death of a loved one, the physician’s next sentence was: “How is your abdominal pain?”
與醫生會面時簡短、倉促的情況十分普遍，提問的機會也很有限。對患者缺乏理解的情況往往很明顯：在一個案例中，患者痛哭流涕地傾訴，最近一位親人去世了，但醫生接下來問的卻是，“你的腹痛是什麼情況？”
We developed a physician-training program, which involved mock patient interviews and assessment from the actor role-playing the patient. Over 250 physicians were trained using this technique. We also arranged for a “physician coach” to sit in on real patient interviews and provide feedback.
我們推出了一項醫生培訓計劃，其中包括由演員扮演的患者參與的模擬問診和評估。有超過250名醫生接受了運用這個技巧進行的培訓。我們還安排了“醫生輔導員”在實際接診時坐在旁邊，進而提供反饋。
Over the next two years, patient satisfaction with doctors, as measured by a standard questionnaire, moved the hospital’s predicted score up in national rankings by a remarkable 40 percentile points. Several studies have found a correlation between higher patient satisfaction scores and better health outcomes. In one, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Harvard health policy researchers reported that higher patient satisfaction was associated with improved outcomes for several diseases, including heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia.
在接下來的兩年裏，通過一項標準化問卷的衡量，患者對醫生的滿意度提高了，而這所醫院的預期得分，在全美排名中也出現了40個百分點的可觀提升。有若干項研究發現，患者滿意度指標的提高，與治療效果的改善存在正相關性。在一篇發表在《新英格蘭醫學雜誌》(The New England Journal of Medicine)上的研究論文中，哈佛大學的醫療政策研究人員寫道，患者滿意度提高，與若干種疾病治療效果的改善存在相關性，包括心肌梗死、心臟衰竭和肺炎。
The need to train and test physicians in “interpersonal and communication skills” was formally recognized only relatively recently, in 1999, when the American Board of Medical Specialties made them one of physicians’ key competencies. Although medical schools and residency programs then began to train and test students on these skills, once physicians have completed training, they are seldom evaluated on them. And doctors trained before the mid-1990s have rarely, if ever, been evaluated at all.
對醫生在“人際關係和溝通技巧”方面進行培訓和檢驗的需求，直到近年來才正式得到承認。在1999年，美國醫療專科委員會(American Board of Medical Specialties)將這些技巧列爲醫生的關鍵能力之一。儘管醫學院和住院醫項目從那時就開始對學生的這些技巧進行培訓和測試，但是醫生在完成學業後，極少還會受到這方面的評估。所有在上世紀90年代中期之前接受醫學教育的醫生，則極少甚至完全沒有得到過評估。
I realize that many colleagues may see methods like ours as too intrusive on their clinical practice and may say that they don’t have the time. But we need to move away from the perception that social skills and better communication are a kind of optional extra for doctors. A good bedside manner is simply good medicine.
我明白很多同行可能會認爲，我們這樣的方法對臨牀實踐的干擾太強，也可能會說他們沒時間。不過，我們需要摒棄那種認爲社交技巧和改善溝通對醫生來說是一種可有可無的額外素質的念頭，因爲在臨牀實踐中，良好的態度本身就是一劑良藥。
A passionate diabetes specialist told me how she sat down with a patient to understand why he was not using his diabetes medications regularly, despite numerous hospital admissions for complications.
一位充滿熱情的糖尿病專科醫師給我講述了她與一名患者坐下來聊天的情形。儘管那名患者因爲併發症而多次入院治療，但是他還是不肯規律地攝入糖尿病藥物，她想弄明白這是爲什麼。
“I can’t continue to do this anymore,” he told her, on the verge of tears. “I’ve just given up.”
“我不能再這樣活了，”他強忍着淚水告訴她。“我乾脆放棄了。”
She placed a hand on his shoulder and just sat with him. After a pause, she said: “You have a heart that still beats, and legs you can still walk on — many of my patients don’t have that privilege.”
她把手放在他的肩膀上，坐在了他身旁。停頓片刻後，她說：“你的心臟還能跳，腿也還能走。許多患者根本沒有這樣的運氣。”
Five years later, recalling this episode, her patient credits her with inspiring him to take better care of himself. The entire encounter took less than five minutes.
五年之後，這位患者在回顧這一幕時稱讚道，是醫生的鼓舞讓他更好地照顧自己。那次會面只花了不到五分鐘。
