Communication between surgeons and patients in routine office visits

Area of Science:

• Medical Communication
• Surgical Practice
• Patient Outcomes

Background:

• Effective communication in primary care improves patient recall, compliance, satisfaction, and well-being.
• Surgeons encounter unique communication challenges within the surgical context.
• This study offers the initial description of routine communication dynamics between community surgeons and their patients.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the communication patterns in routine office visits between community-based general and orthopedic surgeons and their patients.
• To identify key differences in communication content and process compared to primary care settings.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 676 audiotaped office visits involving 29 general surgeons and 37 orthopedic surgeons.
• Coding of audiotapes for communication structure and content.
• Descriptive analysis of quantitative data, supplemented by qualitative dialog examples.

Main Results:

• Average visit duration was 13 minutes, with surgeons dominating the conversation.
• Surgical consultations featured substantial patient education and counseling but maintained a narrow biomedical focus.
• While the overall affective tone was positive, surgeons rarely expressed empathy, and social conversation was minimal.

Conclusions:

• Routine surgical visits differ significantly in content and process from primary care visits.
• Surgeons should prioritize developing enhanced patient education and counseling skills.
• Further research is necessary to ascertain the impact of surgical communication on patient behavioral, psychological, and biomedical outcomes.