Patient certification through mutual problem lists

To determine whether retired military personnel and spouses are cognizant of the patient's complete list of medical problems.

Receiving help from their spouses or other personal care givers, 12 patients listed their health problems from memory plus from a page-by-page review of their permanent medical records. The personal physician produced his own lists and combined them with the patient-generated lists. After mutual review, these combined lists were accepted as the mutual problem lists. Other professionals in the clinic also audited the same patients' charts.

Twelve patients identified an average of 4.58 problems, the physician identified an average of 7.75 problems, and the other professionals identified an average of 6.54 problems.

This lack of agreement has implications for patient education and certification as full collaborators in primary care.