Communication Skills and Patient Complaints

The known relation between poor physician communication skills and malpractice suits has led Canadian and U.S. medical licensure organizations to assess communication, clinical, and problem-solving skills in structured examinations. Canadian researchers focused on a cohort of 3424 physicians who had taken such an exam in Ontario and Quebec; the exam included cases with standardized patients in which communication skills are critical (e.g., handling refusal of treatment for a terminal illness, counseling an adolescent about birth control)

Patient complaints filed with provincial medical regulatory authorities against these physicians (during a mean of 6.5 practice-years) were assessed against exam scores. Of the 1116 filed complaints (4.9 com…