Physician communication in different phases of a consultation at an oncology outpatient clinic related to patient satisfaction

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify the relationship between content during the different phases of the consultation and overall patient satisfaction with regular follow-up consultations at a cancer outpatient clinic. Thirty-six consultations were analysed with Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS). In the statistical analysis, timed events of the RIAS categories were used. The regular follow-up consultations were rather short aiming at discussing medical and therapeutic aspects of the illness. There was a positive correlation between physician informal talk (IT) and patient satisfaction in the history-taking phase. Patients were found to be dissatisfied if the physician had focused on a great deal of psychosocial exchange (PE) during physical examination. Our study suggests that the physician should not initiate discussion of psychosocial topics during physical exam. This result should be studied further in other samples and designs.