​A report from CRICO Strategies found that nearly one third of medical malpractice claims involved a communication failure. The study found communication breakdowns in 30% of 23,648 cases, leading to a total incurred losses of $1.7 billion (the figure includes reserves on open cases and payment on closed cases). The authors urged organizations to take the time to improve communication among both colleagues and patients, rather than spending time later defending complications caused by communication failures. Timely and accurate documentation, and the ability to recognize when critical information has not been conveyed, are essential, the authors state. The report discovered communication failures in 38% of all general medicine cases, 34% of obstetrics cases, 32% of nursing cases and 26% of surgery cases. When the case involved high-severity injury, the likelihood that a communication failure was involved increased to 37%. The most common breakdown involved a miscommunication from provider to provider regarding the patient's condition (26%). Miscommunications between healthcare providers happened in 57% of the cases involving misccomunication and between provider and patient in 55%. Twelve percent of cases involved both miscommunications between providers and miscommunication between provider and patient.

HRC Recommends: Effective physician/patient communication is essential in obtaining patients' informed consent, improving patients' understanding of their health and healthcare, and engaging patients in their care. Communication between providers—especially at handoffs in care—is similarly critical to safe care. Risk managers can help their organization develop communication training programs for physicians and other providers. They can also seek to improve their own communication skills so they can better support physicians and other staff in special situations, such as disclosure discussions.