Communicating with Your Patients: Skills for Building Rapport

Virtually all physicians know that effective communication reduces malpractice risk. What may be less apparent is how it can also contribute to the practice of good medicine, even in the managed care setting. In this volume, health-care journalist Chris Hinz draws on research and real-life case examples to teach physicians and others involved in direct contact with patients valuable interpersonal communication skills and techniques. Hinz demonstrates, through slice-of-life vignettes and sample dialogue, how a physician's deeper understanding of patients - especially in more difficult situations - can help patients to understand the physician more completely.