Clinical medicine (London, England)
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In this paper, I discuss the central importance of the clinical consultation to defining the potential outcomes for an episode of care. The consultation is also crucial to patient safety. ⋯ Better consultations would reduce the possibility of misdiagnosis and also improve patient outcomes, patient experience, patient safety and staff satisfaction. It is high time we improved clinical consultations in hospital settings.
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Decisions on how and when to treat an abdominal aortic aneurysm involve a number of clinicians; interventional radiologists and vascular surgeons assess the technical ability to repair the aneurysm. Patients' fitness and past medical history is assessed to estimate their short- and long-term survival with or without surgery. Most importantly the patients' personal preference for treatment must be identified. Getting a patient to share what matters most to them requires shared decision making.