Improving the Health Worker‐Patient Relationship

Despite investments in infrastructure and personnel that have increased access to care, the quality of government health care in India remains low. One important, but understudied, aspect of quality is provider-patient communication. Poor “soft skills” among providers—being disrespectful of patients or lacking a compassionate interpersonal style, for example—may play a central role in inhibiting the exchange of information between providers and patients, and could even drive patients to forgo care or turn to unqualified private providers. Along with the Government of Punjab, we are planning a randomized evaluation of several innovative interventions aimed at making nurses at health subcenters more attentive to patient satisfaction. The interventions include soft skills training, feedback on patient satisfaction, and rewards for having high patient satisfaction. We will pilot the soft skills training and provider feedback interventions before launching the full-scale study.