| Health Day (consumer.healthday.com) – by Mary Elizabeth Dallas Wednesday, September 12, 2012 “Bedside manner” really does seem to matter. Patients with empathetic doctors have better outcomes and are less likely to experience complications, according to a new study. The findings confirm previous research, which found that the more empathy a physician had the better their patients fared, researchers from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and the Local Health Authority in Parma, Italy, suggested in their report published in the September issue of Academic Medicine. The researchers assessed the doctors’ empathy using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy. This measure defines empathy as an intention to help, and an understanding of a patient’s concerns, pain and suffering. |
