ROLE OF COMMUNICATION IN EFFECTIVE HEALTH CARE DELIVERY - A CRITICAL LOOK AT HEATH CARE PRACTITIONERS' PERSPECTIVE

Communication is the basis of human activity. Every activity of humans is a result of intrapersonal or interpersonal communication. Interpersonal communication becomes even more important in case of group tasks. Health care is one such activities where all stakeholders have their own distinctive roles to play. The outcome of a treatment depends on the effective performance of each one's role which in turn depends on the quality of communication between them. This paper looks at the perception of doctors regarding the efficiency of communication systems at government hospitals in Kerala. The analysis of survey data collected from 240 doctors across Kerala indicated that 'openness of communication', especially between doctors and nurses as well as within doctors and nurses and 'commonly understood emergency communication procedure' are very vital in ensuring communication effectiveness at hospitals. Moreover, while there was a slight difference in opinion of doctors belonging to different age groups regarding the first factor, all the respondents had a unanimous view regarding the importance of commonly understood emergency communication procedure.