A new study, published in
Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) International, reports that
Medicare patients over the age of 80 were less likely to die or be readmitted
within 30 days if they were treated by a female doctor; estimates based on the
findings indicate that as many as 32,000 annual deaths may have been avoided if
the provider had been female. While the study does not draw conclusions
regarding why this is the case, anecdotally, experts hypothesize that females
are generally better communicators and have higher levels of emotional
intelligence. These skills play an important role in not only working with
patients, but also when working with the nurses who arrange discharge, social
work, home care, etc, and the family members who will play a large role in
treatment after discharge.
Listen to the NPR podcast on it here.
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