Barriers to effective communication between family physicians and patients in walk-in centre setting in Dubai: a cross-sectional survey

Abstract

BackgroundEffective communication between family physicians and their patients is crucial to improving healthcare outcomes and patients’ satisfaction. However, the barriers to effective communication have been weakly studied in the Gulf region with no reported studies in Dubai. This study aims to identify the main perceived barriers to effective communication between patients and their family physicians in Dubai from both the physicians’ and the patients’ viewpoints.MethodsThe study was conducted at 12 primary healthcare centres in Dubai between October 2016 – July 2017. Two self-administered questionnaires were used, one measuring the patients’ perceived frequency of encounters with barriers to communication, while the other was for the family physicians’ perceived level of risk to communication posed by the barriers. The barriers were assessed in the following four domains: personal characteristics and attitudes, organisational factors, communication of information, and linguistic and cultural factors.ResultsThere were a total of 1122 patients and 170 family physicians, with 75% and 85% response rates, respectively. Having a time limitation was the highest ranking barrier, with 23.4% of patients encountering it half of the time-always, and 50.6% of physicians perceiving it as moderate-very high risk. This was followed by barriers in the communication of information domain, especially not checking the patient’s understanding and not educating the patient (16.0–16.9%) from the patients’ perception and presentation with multiple problems and not following with a treatment plan (51.2% and 35.9%, respectively), from the physicians’ perception. Preoccupation with medical records ranked in the second pentile for the physicians, and in the lowest pentile for the patients. Barriers related to the failure of rapport building and linguistic/cultural factors ranked in the fourth and fifth pentiles for both patients and physicians.ConclusionTime pressure is the major perceived barrier to communication between patients and family physicians. In addition, a greater focus needs to be placed on training the physicians to convey their messages to the patients clearly, checking their understanding and managing poor historians.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12913-018-3457-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Patients’ and physicians’ gender and perspective on shared decision-making: A cross-sectional study from Dubai

“…al, revealed several issues related to the patient-physician relationship such as lack of time and training, the role of insurance companies, the incentive structure, and lack of support for physicians [ 14 ]. Another study investigating the barriers to communication between family physicians and patients in Dubai showed that female patients experience more time limitations during consultation where not all their issues are addressed as compared to their male counterparts [ 15 ]. That said, gender is known as an important variable for communication styles, decision-making styles, values, and preferences [ 7 ].…”

Translation, Cross-cultural Adaptation and Reliability Analysis of the Survey of Anxiety and Information for Dentists (SAID) among Brazilian Adolescents

“…Adolescents may experience introspection feelings and anxiety, which could potentially compromise their ability to express feelings and communicate with others [1][2][3]. Thus, one of the major challenges in the dental care of adolescent patients lies in the patient-professional communication and dental anxiety control, since adolescents may not accept children's behavioural techniques anymore nor want to be treated as adults [4,5].…”

Quality of Communication Questionnaire for Patients Hospitalized in Intensive and Palliative Care: Validity Evidence for Use in Brazil

“…12,13 Systematic reviews on the effects of interventions to promote patient-centeredness or better interactions with patients have found strong evidence for increased patient-centeredness in encounters and moderate evidence for increased patient satisfaction, 14,15 increased patient adherence, better quality of life, and decreased depression. 15 Another systematic review assessed the effect of interventions on patient empowerment 1 Postgraduate Program in Medical Sciences, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil 2 Hospital Universitário Professor Polydoro Ernani de Sa ˜o Thiago, Florianópolis, State of Santa Catarina, Brazil 3 Center for Exact Sciences and Technology, Federal University of Sergipe, Brazil and found that more successful interventions included training for establishing goals and/or planning actions. 16 Communicating with patients in intensive care units (ICUs) and their families poses challenges, as the environment may be frightening, and patients are usually admitted due to serious, sometimes unexpected, illnesses and injuries.…”

“…Doctor-patient communication is essential in healthcare, and it influences care outcomes. 1 When effective, it results in stronger physician-patient rapport, greater patient trust and satisfaction with physicians, better understanding of illness, and more engagement in decision-making and therapeutic planning. 2,3 These result in greater patient autonomy, enablement for self-care, and treatment adherence.…”