It's refreshing to read about hospital-based programs that aim to improve patient care at the bedside, as exemplified in "Improving Communication Among Nurses, Patients, and Physicians," an article in the supplement, Transforming Care at the Bedside: Paving the Way for Change, which accompanied the November 2009 issue of AJN.

It seems that most standards currently focus on improving the health care provider's skills and procedures; few emphasize the need to improve communication among patients, nurses, and the health care team.

The Transforming Care at the Bedside (TCAB) initiative not only accomplishes this, but does so successfully. Patient satisfaction improved almost 13% with-as did nurses' satisfaction-during the two-year process. I was particularly impressed with the success of nurse-physician intentional rounding, which has now spread to four other units within the hospital.

Initiatives like TCAB help to remind us that the patient should always remain the focal point of health care. Thank you for showing us how one hospital is doing just that.

Emily Pahlow, student nurs

Astoria, NY