How patient-centred am I? A new method to measure physicians' patient-centredness

To describe a new method to determine physicians' self-perceived degree of patient-centredness. A pilot study combining qualitative and quantitative methods.

Forty-one general practitioners (GPs) answered a questionnaire consisting of three open-ended questions about their view of the consultation and by choosing among 28 roles of the physician in the physician-patient relationship. Twenty of the GPs had participated in Balint groups while 21 had had no access to Balint group. Patient-centredness is central to Balint groups and consequently Balint group participants would be expected to be patient-centred.

The answers to the two parts were divided into three groups each, patient-centred, non-patient-centred and intermediary, and analysed statistically. Significantly more Balint participants were patient-centred than the reference group.

The instrument describes physicians' self-perceptions of their patient-centredness and can distinguish a group of patient-centred physicians from a group of non-patient-centred physicians.

The instrument can be useful to evaluate educational programmes and detect decline in patient-centredness as early sign of burnout.