It's the writing on the wall: Whiteboards improve inpatient satisfaction with provider communication. Am J Med Qual 2011;26(2):127-31
Date
09/28/2010Pubmed ID
20870743DOI
10.1177/1062860610376088Scopus ID
2-s2.0-79952590099 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 35 CitationsAbstract
Although keeping patients informed is a part of quality hospital care, inpatients often report they are not well informed. The authors placed whiteboards in each patient room on medicine wards in their hospital and asked nurses and physicians to use them to improve communication with inpatients. The authors then examined the effect of these whiteboards by comparing satisfaction with communication of patients discharged from medical wards before and after whiteboards were placed to satisfaction with communication of patients from surgical wards that did not have whiteboards. Patient satisfaction scores (0-100 scale) with communication improved significantly on medicine wards: nurse communication (+6.4, P < .001), physician communication (+4.0, P = .04), and involvement in decision making (+6.3, P = .002). Patient satisfaction scores did not change significantly on surgical wards. There was no secular trend, and the authors excluded a trend in overall patient satisfaction. Whiteboards could be a simple and effective tool to increase inpatient satisfaction with communication.
Author List
Singh S, Fletcher KE, Pandl GJ, Schapira MM, Nattinger AB, Biblo LA, Whittle JAuthors
Kathlyn E. Fletcher MD Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of WisconsinAnn B. Nattinger MPH, MD Vice Dean, Associate Provost, Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Jeffrey Whittle BS, MPH, MD Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin
MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AdultAudiovisual Aids
Communication
Humans
Inpatients
Midwestern United States
Patient Satisfaction
Professional-Patient Relations
