Techniques for terminating patient-physician encounters in primary care settings

Area of Science:

• Medical communication
• Patient-physician relationship studies

Background:

• Physicians face time constraints, necessitating efficient patient encounter termination strategies.
• Effective communication techniques are crucial for concluding patient-physician interactions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and characterize common methods used to terminate patient-physician encounters.
• To analyze differences in termination techniques between family physicians and consultants.

Main Methods:

• Observation of 320 patient-physician encounters involving seven family physicians and nine consultants.
• Utilized a structured questionnaire to record and assess termination techniques.
• Recorded encounter durations and specific concluding actions.

Main Results:

• Encounter durations averaged 9.02 minutes, with family physicians' encounters being longer (10.39 min) than consultants' (7.93 min).
• Most encounters concluded with physicians providing printed documentation to patients.
• Consultants more frequently used positive concluding remarks (e.g., "be well"); patients never initiated encounter termination.

Conclusions:

• Providing printed documentation is a widely accepted method for concluding patient-physician encounters.
• Positive verbal affirmations from physicians also serve as effective encounter-ending strategies.
• Patient-initiated encounter terminations were not observed in this study.