Patient’s Perspective.

It’s quite interesting to see how one’s opinions, biases and perspectives can alter one’s reality. In terms of patient perspective regarding the health care they receive, one’s level of satisfaction can have a real and profound effect on the treatment results. The phenomenon is similar to the placebo effect. When given the same treatments as control subjects, test subjects who believe they received the treatment express experiencing real effects. In many cases, real measureable physiological effects do in fact occur! It’s a type of mind over matter.

What this means is that when patients perceive that they received exceptional service and express great satisfaction, their physiology is altered to reflect this mental judgment, when in fact the care or treatment they received might not have been extraordinary at all. The same holds true for patients who feel deeply dissatisfied with their care. At this other end of the continuum, these patients may experience slower recovery, express greater degrees of pain and discomfort, overall condition is substandard compared to those on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Yes, I’m fully aware that each individual is unique, with unique physiology, needs, etc. But control experiments have documented that one’s perception of events have real impact on the consequences of those events.

In the unfortunate situation where adverse events occur, what is the most important determinant? Well, if you’re anything like me, you’d think that the ultimate determinant about anything personal regarding any particular person must be that individual’s opinion and perspective on their own situation. In other words, perhaps the individual does not perceive the event to be adverse, is completely satisfied with the treatment, makes no complaints or files any malpractice claims… did an adverse event really occur then?

Same holds true at the other spectrum. A committee of doctors attempts to convince a patient that the results of the procedure are within normal range, that recovery occurring normally, that the level of service and care were in fact exception. If the patient is not convinced, but is convinced of the opposite, that something tragically unfortunate has happened, one wouldn’t be wrong to expect this patient to express anger, frustration, file complaints… perhaps pursue a malpractice lawsuit. Well, did an adverse event occur? I’ve never filed a claim or spoken with a medical malpractice attorney, but I have a feeling his thoughts on this would be “as long as you believe it did” we have a case.