Key Words in Patient Complaints May Point to Physicians With Neurocognitive Disorders

As the number of practicing physicians in the United States over the age of 60 continues to grow, so, too, do the number of questions on how best to identify physicians who may experience neurocognitive disorders. Astudy in the September issue of theAmerican Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry suggests that the language used in complaints by patients may offer clues about those physicians with probable or possible neurocognitive disorders.William O. Cooper, M.D., M.P.H., of Vanderbilt University and colleagues analyzed data on 33,814 physicians who practiced in 144  U.S. hospitals, health care systems, and medical groups that participated in the Vanderbilt Patient Advocacy Reporting System (PARS) program from 2014 through 2016. The PARS data includes unsolicited patient complaints attributed to physicians as recorded by each health care organization's patien t relations staff.As part of participation in the PARS program, leaders report on physicians in their organization who have been referred for evaluation based on concerns related to possible neurocognitive disorders (defined as having a deficit in recent memory, executive functioning, social cognition, global functioning, or visuospatial functioning). For the study, Cooper and colleagues compared the words contained in the patient complaints regarding physicians with and without neurocognitive disorders.Of the 15 physicians identified in the system with evidence of neurocognitive disorders, 11 (73%) had at least one word in...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry neurocognitive disorders patient complaints Vanderbilt Patient Advocacy Reporting System William O. Cooper Source Type: research