"Silence kills"

A study by Crucial Learning shows that each year hundreds of thousands of patients are brought to harm in the course of their healing because of fundamental problems in the collective behavior of caring and capable professionals. For example, each year one in twenty in-patients at hospitals will be given a wrong medication, 3.5 million will get an infection from someone who didn’t wash his or her hands or take other appropriate precautions, and 195,000 will die because of mistakes made while they’re in the hospital.

Studies indicate that more than 60 percent of medication errors are caused by mistakes in interpersonal communication. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations suggests that communication is a top contributor to sentinel events. This study builds on these findings by exploring the specific concerns people have a hard time communicating that may contribute to avoidable errors and other chronic problems in healthcare. The study suggests that there are seven Crucial Conversations that people in healthcare frequently fail to hold that likely add to unacceptable error rates.

• Broken Rules: Coworkers that take shortcuts that could be dangerous to patients.
• Mistakes: Colleagues that show poor clinical judgment when making assessments, doing triage, diagnosing, suggesting treatment, or getting help
• Lack of Support: Colleagues that are reluctant to help, impatient, or refuse to answer their questions.
• Incompetence: Concerns about the competency of some nurse or other clinical-care provider they work with
• Poor Teamwork: One or more teammate who gossips or is part of a clique that divides the team, or who tries to look good at others’ expense.
• Disrespect: People who are condescending, insulting, or rude.
• Micromanagement: People who abuse their authority—pull rank, bully, threaten, or force their point of view on them.

Why don’t people speak up and share their full concerns?

The obvious reason is that confronting people is difficult. In fact, most respondents to the survey indicated it was between difficult and impossible to confront people in these crucial situations. People’s lack of ability, belief that it is “not their job,” and low confidence that it will do any good to have the conversation are the three primary obstacles to direct communication. Other obstacles include time and fear of retaliation.

At Ackermann International, we have partnered with Crucial Learning to bring the power of Crucial Conversations training courses to help organizations improve their results by improving the way they communicate. If you want to see the full  “Silence Kills” study or want to receive more information on how Crucial Learning courses and Crucial Conversations can help your organization, contact us at info@ack-labs.com.