Implementing Ask Me 3 to improve African American patient satisfaction and perceptions of physician cultural competency

Abstract

Objective: Improve African American patient satisfaction and perceptions of physician cultural competency through the implementation of Ask Me 3 pamphlet which encourages patients to ask questions of physicians.

Methods: Intervention participants received the pamphlet prior to their visit with the physician. Analysis evaluated differences in patient satisfaction and perceptions of physician cultural competency between intervention participants and controls.

Results: Intervention participants who saw their regular physician reported higher satisfaction. All found the questions to be helpful and reported knowing more about their medical condition or illness after the visit.

Conclusions: The Ask Me 3 pamphlet is a low cost and logistically feasible tool that could be readily implemented in medical settings to facilitate physician-patient interaction. Improved satisfaction with the visit was found when the pamphlet was implemented during visits with a regular physician. Thus, our research findings suggest implementation of the Ask Me 3 pamphlet has the potential to improve health care behaviors and health outcomes and may ultimately lead to a reduction in health care disparities.