SOAP vs HOPE: Talking to Patients

HOPE is a type of patient visit that differs from the old SOAP framework. Most patients don’t realize that as soon as they enter a doctor’s office they are stuck in a SOAP framework. SOAP is:

• Subjective: What you tell me when you walk into my office
• Objective: What I observe or the tests that I do
• Assessment: Diagnosis
• Plan: The treatment component

The primary goal of the SOAP note is to find out what is the matter with a patient, put a diagnosis to it, and then treat it. But that only deals with a small amount of what goes on in chronic illness.

Simple, systematic approaches during a patient's visit can help that patient tap into their inherent healing capacity. The HOPE note is a different way to have a dialogue between patient and doctor. It stands for Healing Oriented Practices and Environments. The simple questions/tools below can quickly move toward more patient-centered, integrative healthcare and enhance healing for any patient with chronic pain. HOPE addresses;

• Your personal determinants of health
• What matters to you in your life
• Why you want to have health in the first place
• The different components—social, behavior, lifestyle—that you can tap into to actually enhance your own healing

HOPE is a different type of a visit, an integrative health visit that focuses specifically on the underlying determinants of health.