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Conveying Empathy in Telephonic and Digital Communication.

Vol. 25/No. 5 Professional Case Management 297 With the recent coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, there is increased pressure on health care providers to serve patients in a variety of settings. As a result, health care systems have rapidly expanded their modes of care delivery and payment for services such as digital health, telehealth, and virtual care (Dyrda, 2020). This will likely lead to an increase in telephonic case management, as well. Telephonic case management and other telehealth services are often used in managing workers’ compensation cases, particularly after the first few weeks of in-person visits when follow-up by phone can be time-efficient and cost-effective (Mann, 2017). Now, in the wake of COVID-19, case managers in a variety of settings are working remotely using Skype, Zoom, and Google Hangouts, and communicating telephonically and digitally. Communication in all forms is composed of both verbal (what is said) and nonverbal (how it is said) content. An underlying emotional component is empathy—to perceive, understand, experience, acknowledge, and respond—to the concerns and emotions of another person. To connect with individuals receiving case management services (“clients,” who are also known as patients in some care settings), case managers need to put an emphasis on empathy. With empathic communication, professional case managers are better equipped to deliver and facilitate patient-centered care, which is one of the Six Domains of Health Care Quality identified by the Institutes of Medicine (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2018). Patient-centered care relies on effective communication, with empathy and compassion to forge a trusted relationship between the professional case manager and the client. This promotes shared decision-making to help clients and their support systems identify and articulate their goals. Such outcomes are also guided by ethical principles for Certified Case Managers such as autonomy, respecting the person’s right to self-determination, and beneficence, to act with compassion and take positive actions to help others (Commission for Case Manager Certification, 2015). Research also suggests that greater empathy supports active listening to support patient outcomes (Haley et al., 2017). Empathy can also increase the case manager’s cultural competence and sensitivity when advocating for individuals who come from a variety of multicultural backgrounds. The National Association of Social Workers (NASW), in its Standards and Indicators for Cultural Competence in Social Work Practice, states: “Most specifically, active listening, empathy, and strengths-based interventions are essential in culturally competent practice” (NASW, 2015, p. 28). Thus, the importance of empathy in health and human services is well established. When using telephonic and digital means to communicate, however, empathy can be diminished or lost altogether. The reason may not be a lack of empathy on the part of the professional case manager; rather, the cause may be the transition to a less-familiar mode of communicating with clients. Using webcams and platforms such as Zoom and Skype to interact with clients can feel unnatural. As a result, a case manager who may come across as warm, approachable, and empathic in person may seem distant or rushed when communicating online or even telephonically. To increase their comfort in communicating with clients telephonically and digitally, case managers need to assess their technology skills and also become more self-aware of how they are perceived by others.