Importance of human interaction

There is a misconception that supportive interactions require more staff or more time and are therefore more costly. Although labor costs are a substantial part of any hospital budget, the interactions themselves add nothing to the budget. Kindness is free. Listening to patients or answering their questions costs nothing. It could be argued that negative interactions - alienating patients, being unresponsive to their needs, or limiting their sense of control - can be very costly in lost patient revenues and perhaps litigation. Angry, frustrated, or frightened patients may be combative, withdrawn, and less cooperative, requiring far more time than it would have taken to interact with them initially in a positive way.

- Frampton S, Gilpin L, Charmel P. Putting Patients First. pg 9

This is not taught enough to us in medical school. While we focus much on problem-solving in a clinical sense, we have given little thought to problem-preempting in the social sense. Much of medicine is too little too late, often palliative and complicated by our own mistakes - but unfortunately that is also true of the way we relate to patients.

We could afford to think more about the social/psychological factors involved in the condition, the causation, and possible complications down the road. Only then are we physicians in the true sense of the word - healer, friend and comfoter.