Complaints from patients and communication in medicine Contribution of philosophies of questioning

Abstract

In France a new instrument of communication has appeared in hospitals: arbitration committees, charged with gathering complaints from users in weekly meetings. The conditions for the success of this sort of arrangement are examined on the basis of reflexion about information and explanation in medicine. The philosophy of language, more precisely the theory of questions and argumentation allows us to propose a new model of communication, better adapted to the specificity of doctor-patient relations. This model is constituted from a theory of referential dialogue (F. Jacques), in which information has to be constituted by all of the actors and not only transmitted in a one-directional way. Then there is an examination, using the theory of performative acts, of the conditions of success of apologies and other acts of reparation.