Hospitals in England ranking highly for empathy ‘have better patient outcomes’

Key points

• Patients and staff fare better at hospitals that rank highly on empathy, research suggests, with institutions also benefiting financially by spending less on agency staff, locums and consultants.
• The finding comes from the first study to rate NHS trusts in England according to an empathy score that is drawn from information on the organisation’s culture, leadership behaviour and practitioner empathy, among other factors.
• The report found that even modest increases in a trust’s overall empathy score were associated with widespread benefits, such as a better chance of the trust holding a “good” or “outstanding” rating for effectiveness and patient safety by the Care Quality Commission, the health and social care services regulator.
• Small improvements in empathy were also linked to better staff wellbeing, with higher scoring trusts reporting less burnout and absenteeism than those that scored lower.
• Expenditure on agency staff and external consultants was also lower in trusts with...