Spoken communication and patient safety: a new direction for healthcare communication policy, research, education and practice? (September 2019)

Summary

This report, published in BMJ Open Quality, sets out the findings of a National Health Service Improvement (NHSI) working group on care communication which included clinicians, patients, patient representatives, NHSI staff and academics from different disciplines.

The group’s activities included running four national focus groups and discussion days, in addition to conducting national and international literature searches on healthcare communication and communication improvement.

Content

The group’s conclusions are that six domains of care communication warrant attention and improvement:

• the care environment
• information exchange
• attitude and listening
• aligning and responding
• team communication
• communicating with unique groups. 

Together, these domains expand the definition of healthcare communication from communication as information transaction to communication as complex social and local dynamic. 

The report outlines the consequences of this expanded definition for healthcare communication improvement and improvement research.