This bit of evidence supports the broader issues being raised as health insurance providers seek more input from consumers about their preferences when they choose a health benefits plan. A recent study found somewhat unexpectedly that many consumers are OK with switching primary care clinicians, moving to a new hospital system and making all sorts of other changes as long as they believe their new medical "team" actually knows and cares about them.

Narrow choices in plan selection, it turned out, weren't an issue as long as the options included medical personnel and care facilities with good local reputations and ones that made an effort to establish a brand for patient-centered care. That study supports others that underscore the need for greater communication between health care personnel and their patients.

In the Vanderbilt study, even such a seemingly small matter as offering a "sketch card" with basic information about care providers markedly improved post-hospitalization patient satisfaction. The implications for applying this technique throughout the patient/provider process are enormous, Vanderbilt concluded.

"I think, in general, people recover better when they are more comfortable with the care they are receiving," Dr. Alex Jahangir, an associate professor of orthopedic surgery and rehabilitation at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said in a university news release.

He called the "sketch card" with the bio information on it "an easy, cheap intervention … [that] is literally something that doesn't even cost a nickel but improves a patient's experience, and hopefully their recovery – metrics that matter not only to the institution, but also to patients and their physicians."