A Method for Better Physician-Patient Communication

Abstract

Dismissal interviews were recorded between 48 patients and their physicians. Each patient took home a cassette containing this interview. About 3 months later, the patients received a questionnaire designed to assess the acceptability and usefulness of this method of communication. Most patients proved to have ready access to a cassette player. Their responses were highly favorable: 91% thought they were helped to understand the physician's discussion; 75% found it helpful to have their spouse or relatives listen to the tape; 62% preferred the recording to a letter; and 86% of the patients believed that the taped interview improved their health care. Many studies record the inadequacy of communication by physicians to their patients. This technique of recording dismissal interviews may make a contribution to improving such communication.

Cancer and communication: information-giving in an oncology clinic.

“…Nevertheless, at the follow-up interviews patients who had received the tape-recordings said they had found them of value. According to their self-reports, 13 of the 14 patients listened to their recordings at least once; and the 14th said that her husband and other members of her family had listened to the tape in order to understand her illness better. The tape-recordings were also used for this purpose by more than half the patients.…”

Provision of taped conversations with neonatologists to mothers of babies in intensive care: randomised controlled trial

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] We carried out a randomised single blind trial to compare the effects of providing or not providing mothers of babies in neonatal intensive care units with an audiotape of their conversations with the neonatologist.…”

“…1 Case management aims to improve outcomes in patients and, in particular, to reduce unplanned hospital admission. Systematic reviews of home based support for older people have drawn mixed conclusions from no overall impact on hospital admission 2 to reduced admission rates and costs, dependent on the system of care.…”

Consultation audio-tapes: an information aid, and a quality assurance and research tool

“…Butt [5] was the first to suggest that patients might benefit from being provided with an audio-tape of their consultation. A meta-analysis of audiocassettes of cancer consultations has reported that patients value consultation audio-tapes, and recent studies have yielded reports of increased satisfaction and recall of consultations if audio-tapes are provided.…”

“…All the consultations were audio-taped and analysed for doctor and patient behaviours. Provision of the question prompt sheet increased the number of patient questions about prognosis, although total question asking was unaffected [5]. In a subsequent similar study we investigated whether coaching in question asking [18] and provision of a question prompt sheet would intensify the impact; the question prompt sheet significantly increased the number of general questions and specific questions on prognosis and tests asked by cancer patients, but coaching had no additional impact [1].…”