Healthcare workers today acknowledge that poor communication is perhaps one of the most prevalent problems in medicine. A number of studies have looked into the causes and outcomes of poor communication in medical facilities, and it appears from these studies that the problem is pressing enough to gain the attention of not just healthcare workers, but also the general public. One study conducted in the late 1990s found that poor communication was responsible for causing between 44,000 and 98,000 patient deaths annually in American hospitals alone. Other studies found that poor communication was one of the leading causes of preventable deaths in hospitals. These worrying reports have encouraged a number of worldwide efforts to exhaustively characterize the factors that lead to poor communication between physicians and their patients; by contrast, there has been comparatively less emphasis on analyzing poor communication outside the sphere of physician-patient interactions. In other words, poor communication between physicians and other physicians, between physicians and nurses, and between hospitals and other hospitals, has remained largely unexplored. The relative paucity of papers in these areas is due in part to the difficulty of conducting the necessary large-scale assessments that these topics of research require. As a result, the public remains largely unaware of the few findings that have been published in the literature. What did the study conducted in the late 1990s find about poor communication? A. It is the leading cause of the preventable patient deaths.B. It occurs the most frequently in the hospitals in the US.C. It leads to large numbers of patient deaths every year.D. It encourages a number of worldwide efforts to improve it.

Healthcare workers today acknowledge that poor communication is perhaps one of the most prevalent problems in medicine. A number of studies have looked into the causes and outcomes of poor communication in medical facilities, and it appears from these studies that the problem is pressing enough to gain the attention of not just healthcare workers, but also the general public.

One study conducted in the late 1990s found that poor communication was responsible for causing between 44,000 and 98,000 patient deaths annually in American hospitals alone. Other studies found that poor communication was one of the leading causes of preventable deaths in hospitals.

These worrying reports have encouraged a number of worldwide efforts to exhaustively characterize the factors that lead to poor communication between physicians and their patients; by contrast, there has been comparatively less emphasis on analyzing poor communication outside the sphere of physician-patient interactions. In other words, poor communication between physicians and other physicians, between physicians and nurses, and between hospitals and other hospitals, has remained largely unexplored.

The relative paucity of papers in these areas is due in part to the difficulty of conducting the necessary large-scale assessments that these topics of research require. As a result, the public remains largely unaware of the few findings that have been published in the literature.

What did the study conducted in the late 1990s find about poor communication?

• A. It is the leading cause of the preventable patient deaths.
• B. It occurs the most frequently in the hospitals in the US.
• C. It leads to large numbers of patient deaths every year.
• D. It encourages a number of worldwide efforts to improve it.