I was at the annual meeting for my homeowners' association last night and I begin to think about open communication and transparency.

There a lot of complaints and questions about what's been going on with the leadership of the community.  There is only one meeting a year, the monthly board meetings have been either closed to the public or unadvertised.  The main source of communication has been phone or email from a web site that many homeowners didn't know about.

There have been issues with the former property manager and people in the community didn't know about that or the resignations from the board.  Consequently, many felt disenfranchised, and were distrustful of the board members and how the dues have been spent.

Watching all of this I realized that if communication had been kept in the open and homeowners informed of changes in the board and property management, their distrust would have been minimized.  And giving people a chance to speak during the previous year would have lessened the complaints in the meeting.  I believe that most people respond to open honest communication.  Explanations of community issues before this meeting would have lowered the level of hostility in the room.

How does this apply to health care?

Imagine if health care providers were open and honest all the time about what a patient is experiencing.  

You arrive on time for your doctor appointment but wait forty-five minutes to see the doctor.  Why did that happen?  The doctor may have had a complicated patient case come in and needed to spend more time with someone.  Or other patients’ lateness has caused the doctor to be running behind.  I read an article somewhere I can’t remember that stated that the main reason patients need to wait for their doctor is that other patients before have been late.  I don’t think most people know that.

Would knowing one of those situations help you be less frustrated with your doctor when you have to wait?

There are many other examples that can be imagined.  Ones that apply to hospital visits or even organization decisions.  The tools and technology for open communication are different depending on the situation.  In a hospital, talking to the patients individually would be more effective then later blogging about the event; for an organization blogging about a decision or event is more effective than individually talking to everyone interested.

I believe that open, honest communication in health care would reduce complaints and malpractice suits and allow the health care industry to spend more time treating patients.