Medical discourse of non-medical staff: analysis of the ideal dialogue between an administrator of a medical call-center in the intercultural aspect

Abstract

E.V. Pesennikova, OV Gridnev, SA Korostelev, DM Andreeva, SD Marchenko

Building effective communication of non-medical personnel of a medical center with a patient or perspective client at the stage of primary contact as a problem of medical ethics and deontology is currently not well understood, but requires close attention not only to study medical discourse as a whole, but also to increase the attractiveness of a medical center for consumers of services. In this study, an approach to assessing communication in the information call-center of a medical organization was considered through an interview with representatives of different cultures: Russian and American. Research objective: Identification of intercultural differences in the views of Russian and American respondents about the ideal dialogue between the administrators of a medical call center with a potential client who called the call center for information. Materials and methods. The research was conducted by interviewing Russian and American respondents. The study did not study the correlation with other sampling parameters, except for belonging to a cultural group (Russian or American respondents). Results: Analyzing respondents’ opinions on the welcoming part, both groups note the importance of greeting phrases and the name of the organization. Their opinions differ significantly in terms of the need to indicate the administrator’s name in the conversation and use courtesy constructions like “Can I help you?” in the end of the conversation. A similar attitude to the courtesy constructions is demonstrated, analyzing the structure of the end of a conversation: respondents of group A only 12- 16% note the necessary expressions, unlike respondents of group B (60- 72%). 54% of respondents in group A and 64% in group B noted that the administrator can hang up the phone first. Analyzing the respondents’ opinions to the situation when the administrator cannot answer the caller's question, it is revealed that the respondents of group A demonstrate a more loyal attitude to the incompetence of the administrator: 18% of the respondents of group A (up to 2% of the respondents of group B) consider this situation to be acceptable and only 2% Of these, the reasons for administrator incompetence are of interest (against 28% in Group B) Group B respondents cite clearer characteristics of the administrator’s ideal timbre for voice and more stringent requirements for clear vocabulary compared to group A respondents. Conclusions: The research showed the differences in the respondents' perceptions about the ideal dialogue between the administrator of a medical call center and a caller, which may be related to intercultural characteristics. By indirect evidence, it can be assumed that service behavior in medical centers in Russia is in its infancy and for more effective improvement it is advisable to take into account not only the opinion of Russian consumers of medical services.