The impact of oncologists' behaviors on patient satisfaction with morning rounds

Morning rounds are the major focus of physician-patient interaction for hospitalized cancer patients. To determine the impact of specific physician behaviors on patient satisfaction with these rounds, the authors examined 401 such individual interactions using a previously developed Physician Behavior Check List (PBCL) and several visual analogue scales that assessed patient satisfaction. Patient satisfaction for the entire group was high (X = 8.56 on a 10 cm scale) and failed to correlate significantly with specific physician behaviors. By splitting at the median, high and low satisfaction groups were obtained. For the high satisfaction group older age, a poorer prognosis, and a positive quality of the day's news were associated with higher satisfaction. Use of the patient's first name and attempts to establish privacy during an exam were positively correlated with satisfaction, whereas discussing the role of the family and examining nontruncal areas had a negative impact. For the lower satisfaction group, a series of routine social skills behaviors (e.g., sitting while talking to patients, not interrupting) and two medically related behaviors correlated best with patient satisfaction. There was little significant impact on satisfaction of behaviors related to the provision of either medical information or emotional support.