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Physical Distancing With Social Connectedness
Kurt C. Stange, and colleagues
Background Relationships between patients and clinicians matter, even in telehealth visits. A new article explores how clinicians can invest in relationships during a variety of visit types, from short-term telehealth, urgent care, and emergency department visits to ongoing visits for well care and chronic disease management.
What This Study Found In a telehealth visit, for example, clinicians can invest in the relationship by giving "full attention to the patient via the screen, or allowing no visual if that�s what the patient wants." In a more in-depth chronic disease management visit, clinicians can consider the illness context and the patient's life story in order to help the patient identify personal and community resources for managing their condition. As patients are more often treated by health care teams, and with the emergence of telemedicine, virtual visits are becoming more common--often with health care providers who do not know the patient or their health history. The authors conclude, "what we need in a pandemic is not social distancing, but physical distancing with social connectedness."
Implications
- Investing in relationships in all types of visits can personalize the experience for both patients and clinicians and may also result in more efficient, less costly care.