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Improving the effectiveness of the medical visit: A brief visit-structuring workshop changes patients’ perceptions of primary care visits

2006; Elsevier BV; Volume: 62; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.pec.2006.06.007

1873-5134

Leonard J. Haas, Kelly Glazer, John Houchins, Susan Terry,

Patient Satisfaction in Healthcare

To teach visit-structuring strategies to primary care clinicians with a 1.5-h experiential workshop and assess its effect on patient perceptions of their medical visits. We developed and conducted a 90 min workshop for 75 clinicians from seven primary care clinics, and evaluated the effectiveness of the workshop by assessing changes in patients’ ratings of visit qualities from 1 week prior (n = 301) to 1 week after (n = 322) the workshop. Patients rated their physicians’ visit-structuring skills as well as satisfaction with their medical visits. Patients were highly satisfied with their visits both before and after the workshop. Post-workshop ratings of medical visits were more likely to indicate that all problems were addressed during the visit. A brief workshop had a positive measurable effect on patients’ perception of their medical visits. Future research should address the utility of patient rated assessments of visit characteristics. Physicians’ ability to establish and maintain a productive structure in primary care office visit is an important skill that can improve the quality of care, and some changes in physician visit-structuring behavior can be measured using patient perceptions.