Older Patient-Doctor Communication: Guidance, Strategy, Tips

Studies find that effective physician-patient communication has specific benefits such as, patients are more likely to adhere to treatment and have better outcomes, they express greater satisfaction with their treatment, and they are less likely to bring malpractice suits. Communicating with older patients involves special issues. The aim of this book is to introduce and/or reinforce communication skills essential in caring for older patients and their families. The book offers practical techniques and approaches to help with diagnosis, promote treatment adherence, make more efficient use of clinicians time, and increase patient and provider satisfaction. It then continues by discussing ways in which older people should talk to their doctors. A good patient-doctor relationship is more of a partnership. The Book gives a guide on how to ask the right questions to a doctor, along with nurses, physician assistants, pharmacists, and other health care providers, to solve medical problems and keep a patient healthy.