Patients' Impression of Health Care Providers' Attire in the Emergency Department

Background The level of patient satisfaction and, ultimately, the assessment of the quality of care are greatly influenced by physicians' capacity to leave a positive impression on patients during provider-patient interactions. The way doctors dress affects how people view their care. There have been few studies on the impact of doctors' attire on patient confidence and trust. The objective of this study is to assess patients' preferences concerning specific cultural attire and its influence on patients' trust, compliance, and perceptions of the quality of care in the emergency department. Methods A cross-sectional study was performed using the survey methodology for patients in emergency departments. Participants completed a written survey after reviewing doctors' portraits in different dress styles. Respondents were asked questions about the importance of the health service providers' attire in the emergency department on the patient's perception. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21 (SPSS; IBM Inc., Armonk, New York) was used to perform the analysis after the data were entered into Microsoft Excel 2016 (Microsoft, Redmond, Washington). The categorical analysis was performed using the Chi-squared test to explore for relationships between the results and various variables. Result A self-administered questionnaire was completed by 395 patients; two responses were excluded for lack of completeness of the answers in it: 33.8%) were males (66.2%) were females (56.7%) were married (73.8%) completed university education (44.8%) were employed and (74.5%) with excellent health conditions. The questionnaire was devoted to the local setting, with pictures of the health care provider (male and female), in different types of doctor's attire included. Respondents overwhelmingly prefer male emergency physicians to dress in medical scrub (50%, p=.0001) and prefer female emergency physicians to dress in a medical scrub with a white coat (68.7%, p=.0001).  Conclusion First impressions based on a physician's appearance serve as the foundation for assumptions about trust, confidence, and competency, particularly in circumstances when patients or family members do not already have a relationship with the provider.