Patients' attitudes toward the closing of a medical practice

A questionnaire probing various aspects of the termination of the physician-patient relationship was distributed to 200 consecutive patients during the last weeks of the author's private practice. The response rate was 89%. Although two thirds of the patients had already heard of the author's planned departure, only 25% of the respondents had made an attempt to secure a new physician. Their preference in most cases (92.5%) was to find another family physician. Examination of the physician-patient relationship revealed that most people felt there was a lag between the length of time it took the physician to understand their medical problems and the time it took to understand their emotional problems. Approximately one half (54.0%) of the respondents needed at least a few visits to become comfortable with a new physician. However, 8.6% needed years to gain that comfort. Eighty percent of those individuals who required years to become comfortable with a new physician were women. Further, the emotional attachment to the physician was greater in those families for whom the physician had delivered a baby.