Without Communication, Health Care Doesn’t Happen

The man entering the mobile health vehicle hadn’t planned to come in, but he still didn’t feel well. He’d seen a doctor already, but he didn’t understand what he’d been told.

Inside the rolling clinic, Mayra Trujillo, program coordinator for RFU’s Community Care Connection (CCC), and team ran their routine screening protocols and discovered their patient’s blood pressure was critically high. But before sending him to the emergency room, they made sure they communicated the urgency of the problem and exactly what he needed to do. And they took the time to answer all his questions.

Ms. Trujillo points out that patients often get just 15 minutes, maybe 30, for a typical doctor’s office appointment. “When patients come to us, they have more time to discuss their health,” she says. CCC team members educate patients about their health needs in words they understand, based on their literacy and language. Most CCC team members and their patients speak English and Spanish. If another language is needed, RFU’s translation service quickly provides an interpreter.

“In our experience, good communication increases patient trust, improves participation in preventive services like screenings and vaccines, and reduces missed appointments,” Ms. Trujillo says. “These factors collectively contribute to better overall health outcomes in the communities we serve.”

Communication is maintained after a patient’s visit, too. Patients are encouraged to return to any of the CCC’s locations, as often as they like, for information or follow-up. At the ER, the patient with high blood pressure got started on medication. The CCC team kept in touch.

“Now he’s connected with his primary-care doctor, he’s getting treatment, and he’s doing so well,” Ms. Trujillo says.