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Published on: February 16, 2011
Improving the effectiveness of the medical visit: a brief visit-structuring workshop changes patients' perceptions of
Leonard J Haas1, Kelly Glazer, John Houchins
1Department of Family & Preventive Medicine, University of Utah, 375 Chipeta Way, Suite A, Salt Lake City, 84108, USA. Lhaas@dfpm.utah.edu
Objective:
To teach visit-structuring strategies to primary care clinicians with a 1.5-h experiential workshop and assess its effect on patient perceptions of their medical visits.
Methods:
We developed and conducted a 90 min workshop for 75 clinicians from seven primary care clinics, and evaluated the effectiveness of the workshop by assessing changes in patients' ratings of visit qualities from 1 week prior (n=301) to 1 week after (n=322) the workshop. Patients rated their physicians' visit-structuring skills as well as satisfaction with their medical visits.
Results:
Patients were highly satisfied with their visits both before and after the workshop. Post-workshop ratings of medical visits were more likely to indicate that all problems were addressed during the visit.
Conclusions:
A brief workshop had a positive measurable effect on patients' perception of their medical visits. Future research should address the utility of patient rated assessments of visit characteristics.
Practice Implications:
Physicians' ability to establish and maintain a productive structure in primary care office visit is an important skill that can improve the quality of care, and some changes in physician visit-structuring behavior can be measured using patient perceptions.
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