Abstract
Objective: To identify physician communication behaviors associated with perceptions of quality of care and predictive of positive patient outcomes. Patients and Methods: A total of 452 families seeing 48 pediatricians for a child's asthma participated. Perceptions and health care use were assessed at baseline and after 12 months through interviews and medical records. The measures used were 10 physician communication behaviors and 6 items describing physician's performance, asthma office visits, emergency department visits, and hospitalization. Results: Positive perceptions of physicians' performance were related to (P ≤.05) careful listening, inquiring about at-home management, nonverbal attention, interactive conversation, tailoring short-term goals, and long-term therapeutic plan. Loss in health care use was predicted (P ≤.05) by interactive conversation, short-term goals, criteria for decision making, long-term treatment plan, and tailoring according to needs. The use of these techniques did not lengthen the patient visit. A clinician-patient partnership paradigm is provided based on these findings. Conclusions: The specific clinician communication behaviors predicted reduced health care use and positive perceptions of quality of care.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 49-57 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Clinical Pediatrics |
Volume | 47 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 2008 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Asthma
- Outcomes
- Physician communication
- Physician education
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health