The cost of not addressing the communication barriers faced by hospitalized patients.
Richard R Hurtig, Rebecca M Alper, Benjamin Berkowitz
PMID 30854467WHAT IT FOUND
The paper estimates that addressing communication barriers in hospitals could prevent hundreds of thousands of adverse events and save billions annually.
These are modeled projections based on national data, not results from a clinical trial.
What this paper is
This is a policy and economic analysis piece, not a clinical trial or observational study. It uses existing national data to estimate the potential financial savings and reduction in adverse events if hospitalized patients' communication needs were fully met. Because it does not test an intervention or report new patient outcomes, there are no clinical findings here to change your practice on.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the estimated cost savings or adverse event reductions as evidence that specific communication interventions work. These figures are mathematical projections based on odds ratios from other studies, not outcomes measured in this paper.