Physicians Miss the Opportunity to Respond to Patients With Compassion

The health care system tends to put more value on procedures and tests than on conversation or prevention. Many of them are frustrated that their profession, long viewed as a calling, has become so transactional. But there also appears to be a perception gap between physicians and patients. When asked if most health care professionals provide compassionate care, seventy eight per cent of the doctors said yes. For patients, that number was just fifty four per cent.