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Alphabetical prejudice in team discussions (or would Zebedee ever get seen on a ward round)
Rajiv Singh1, Alistair Philip, Stephen Smith
1Scottish Brain Injury Rehabilitation Service, Astley Ainslie Hospital, Edinburgh EH9 2HL, UK. rajiv.singh@lpct.scot.nhs.uk
Purpose:
To ascertain whether the order in which patients are discussed in a team meeting determines the time spent on discussion.
Design:
Prospective study over 18 consecutive multidisciplinary team meetings.
Setting/Subjects:
Multidisciplinary team meetings on a Brain Injury Rehabilitation Unit, Edinburgh.
Main Outcome Measure:
Time spent discussing each case.
Results:
Patients discussed early on received 3-4 minutes more discussion time than those later on. This was highly significant on a one-way analysis of variance (P < 0.001).
Conclusions:
Preferential treatment of patients who come at the start of the team meeting is a real phenomenon. Such alphabetical prejudice, where it exists, should be addressed.
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