Original CommunicationsCommunication between surgeons and patients in routine office visits☆,☆☆
Section snippets
Study design and subjects
This study used data from a larger research project examining the relationship of physician-patient communication with physicians' malpractice history.17 The Institutional Review Board of Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital, Portland, Oregon, approved the study. As part of the research, 676 audiotapes of routine office visits with surgeons were coded for structure and content. Both physicians and patients completed exit questionnaires assessing patient and physician demographic information and the
Visit characteristics
The mean visit time was 12.7 minutes (SD 7.9) for orthopedic surgery consultations and 13.1 minutes (SD 11.2) in general surgery. Approximately 18% of patients were seeing the surgeon for the first time. The most frequent diagnoses recorded by orthopedic surgeons were injuries to the rotator cuff of the shoulder, anterior cruciate ligament of the knee, lateral or medial meniscus of the knee, ankle fractures, carpal tunnel syndrome, and low back pain. The most frequent diagnoses recorded by
Discussion
Overall, the content of discussions between surgeons and patients focused on biomedical issues, with the largest percentage of time devoted to dialogs about patients' medical conditions and treatment options. In fact, almost half the visits were dedicated to the patient education and counseling phase during which surgeons educated patients by giving them information. This seems consistent with the work of physicians in this setting because they often see patients referred to them for a surgical
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Cited by (112)
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2020, Journal of Surgical EducationA Qualitative Analysis of the Preoperative Needs of Patients With Papillary Thyroid Cancer
2019, Journal of Surgical ResearchA Review of Empathy, Its Importance, and Its Teaching in Surgical Training
2018, Journal of Surgical EducationCitation Excerpt :However, it has become increasingly more supported that surgeons should practice empathy beyond the critical moments of reporting complications or poor surgical outcomes. Descriptive studies examining surgeon communication with patients find that surgeons overwhelmingly spend most of their time exchanging biomedical information, using close-ended questions, and rarely touching upon emotional and psychosocial aspects of care.12,20 Studies tend to report surgeon response to empathic opportunities at only 10%-30%12; Braddock examined 89 orthopaedic surgeons and found that patients only fully disclosed 53% of their real concerns about surgery to the surgeon, rarely bringing up issues like lack of social support and other barriers to surgery.21
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Supported in part by Agency for Health Care Policy and Research R01 grant No. 07289.
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Reprint requests: Wendy Levinson, MD, University of Chicago Medical Center, 5841 S Maryland Ave, MC 6098, Chicago, IL 60637.