Paying lip service to patient safety: better communication, improved work environment seen as lowering medical errors.

Recent studies and discussions are shining a new light on how better communication can lead to better patient outcomes, improved patient safety, improved morale, and reduced turnover, especially among nursing staffs. While it is a seemingly simple idea on the surface, the issue must surmount years of entrenched-and sometimes disrespectful-behavior that sometimes has caused patients to receive less-than-optimum clinical care.