Communication between doctors and health care facilities. There is a term I use and have written about previously, called “Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen Syndrome.” This is an all too common occurrence in health care settings when a complex (typically elderly) patient with multiple comorbidities, is seen by a large number of different specialists. Communication is lacking between these different doctors, and everything ends up confused and muddled (most of all for the patients and their families). Along the same lines, communication within and between health care facilities during transitions of care also still sadly leaves much to be desired.
In these situations, nothing beats a concise, good old fashioned face-to-face or telephone conversation between doctors. We have so much we need to improve upon. As with many things in health care, lots of the answers are surprisingly…
