Communication the Cleveland Clinic Way: How to Drive a Relationship-Centered Strategy for Exceptional Patient Experience

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Empathic Communication Through the Loop Lens

A Surgeon’s Perspective

For this is the great error of our day in the treatment of the human body, that physicians separate the soul from the body.¹

—SOCRATES

Dr. Adrienne Boissy writes:

We knew early on that a communication skills program that was built and rolled out in a healthcare system that was largely run by surgeons needed not only surgeon input into content, but surgeon facilitators. People would make assumptions about “the type of person who teaches communication skills” and we wanted to highlight those assumptions and then squash them.

With some anxiety, we approached surgeons one by one and invited them to join our work. This was couched as, “We ...