Communication between hospital doctors: Underaccommodation and interpretability

• Communication is a key contributor to adverse events and quality of patient care.
• Two studies explore inter-specialty underaccommodation in medical charts.
• Charts show underaccommodation and better interpretation by ingroup specialists.
• Perceptions of underaccommodative charts are generally positive or neutral.
• Doctors use excuses, common outgroups, and minimizing importance of comprehension.

We examined underaccommodation in hospital medical charts, with a focus on interpretability. In Study 1 147 hospital doctors completed a questionnaire including interpretations of chart entries from their own or another specialty. Study 2 used interviews with 10 doctors to explore interpretations of the same charts and perceptions of the writers. Results indicated that participants interpreted entries by ingroup doctors more accurately than outgroup ones. Interview findings indicated that doctors made excuses for their peers and cast patients as an outgroup. Results indicate that underaccommodation leads to lack of comprehension, which is generally excused by readers.