Sounds Alike: Patients, Patient's and Patience

These three words all sound exactly the same. It is little wonder therefore, why people get them confused and often use them incorrectly - when it comes to writing them out on paper or typing them for display on a computer screen.

Over the years, I have noticed a number of mis-uses of these words. I cite below a few examples of these to illustrate some of the variants. I also pose the question of whether knowledge of context should allow us to break the rules of grammar when moving from spoken to written communication.

Example 1:
I recently received an email from a computer system administrator apologising for a breakdown in online service. At the end of the email, the administrator wrote: "... thank you for your patients ...". Its pretty obvious which of the three sound-alikes should have been used!

Example 2:
Patients were also mentioned in another email that I recently received. In this case the sender wrote: " ... The new pill will improve patient treatment ...". So, I then wondered, what exactly is 'patient treatment' - is it treatment that is administered very slowly and without hassle? Of course, I then realised that the sender should really have used the possessive form of the noun 'patient' rather than the adjective! What he really meant to write was " ... The new pill will improve patients' treatment ..."

Example 3:
This example is also related to medical therapy - the use of an ingestible event marker within orally taken medication. A report that I recently read contained the following phrases: " ... It would be useful in monitoring patient adherence and the data collected ... there are, however, some concerns about the safety of patient data ...". This usage is, of course, very similar to that reported in the previous example.

In the second and third of the above examples, I was able to deduce what the senders of the messages meant from the context of the messages - medications and the taking of pills. This, of course, begs the question of whether or not we can break the rules of written grammar when the context of usage is clear. Of course, in a vocal exchange (as might have taken place in a face-to-face conversation or one that was mediated by a mobile phone), I would not have been able to spot the sender's mis-use of grammar since patients, patient's and patients' all sound the same.