Anesthesiologists and perioperative communication.

LOOK up communication in a major anesthesiology text, a medical dictionary, or reference book on legal issues and you will not find the word listed, except in the most qualified sense. Yet read these books and you find ample evidence of the importance of communication in anesthesia practice. The word derives from the Latin communicare, meaning to impart, participate. Anesthesiologists, other health professionals, and patients communicate on multiple levels every day. Anesthesiologists participate in activities involving complex social transactions with medical, legal, ethical, and personal significance. They also impart and receive information that affects their participation in other medical professionals’ actions. The quality and quantity of anesthesiologists’ communications has a bearing on the values, outcomes, and standards of their professional work. Recognizing the importance of communication, the American Society of Anesthesiologists has charged the Committee on Communication to “improve public education as it relates to anesthesiology.”‡ Good communication is as important to protecting professional integrity as it is to patient safety and satisfaction. For these reasons, it is as important for anesthesiologists to pay attention to the structure and function of professional communication as it is to learn the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drugs.