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Comparative Study
. 2014 Jan;59(1):50-3.
doi: 10.1177/070674371405900109.

Do patients really prefer individual outpatient follow-up visits, compared with group medical visits?

Ronald A Remick  1 , Abigail K Remick  2
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Do patients really prefer individual outpatient follow-up visits, compared with group medical visits?

Ronald A Remick et al. Can J Psychiatry. 2014 Jan.

Abstract
in English, French

Objective: Access to outpatient psychiatric care remains problematic in Canada. We have been using group medical visits (GMV) to treat psychiatric outpatients with mood and anxiety disorders. Our study aimed to show that patients are similarly satisfied with GMV and individual psychiatric treatment, hence the concern that patients truly prefer individual treatment may be unfounded.

Method: Our study compared patient satisfaction in people who have had previous individual psychiatric care and are now receiving GMV to determine whether there is a treatment preference.

Results: Questionnaire data were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA. The ANOVAs showed no differences in patients' experiences with individual treatment, compared with GMV. In addition, we found when asked directly, most patients preferred GMV or had no treatment preference.

Conclusions: These findings indicate that patients' perspectives of individual psychiatric treatment and GMV are roughly equal. This suggests that the method of GMV deserves further study and comparison with other clinical models of psychiatric outpatient treatment.

Objectif : L’accès aux soins psychiatriques ambulatoires demeure problématique au Canada. Nous avons eu recours aux visites médicales en groupe (VMG) pour traiter les patients externes psychiatriques souffrant de troubles de l’humeur et d’anxiété. Notre étude visait à démontrer que les patients sont semblablement satisfaits des VMG et du traitement individuel psychiatrique. C’est pourquoi il n’est peut-être pas fondé d’affirmer que les patients préfèrent vraiment le traitement individuel. Méthode : Notre étude comparait la satisfaction de patients qui avaient auparavant reçu des soins psychiatriques individuels et qui avaient maintenant droit à des VMG afin de déterminer s’il existe une préférence de traitement. Résultats : Les données d’un questionnaire ont été analysées à l’aide de mesures répétées de l’analyse de variance. Les analyses de variance n’indiquaient aucune différence dans les expériences des patients en traitement individuel, comparé aux VMG. En outre, quand nous l’avons demandé directement, nous avons constaté que la plupart des patients préféraient la VMG ou n’avaient aucune préférence de traitement. Conclusions : Ces résultats indiquent que les points de vue des patients sur le traitement psychiatrique individuel et les VMG sont à peu près égaux, ce qui suggère que la méthode des VMG mérite une étude approfondie et une comparaison avec d’autres modèles cliniques de traitement psychiatrique ambulatoire.

Keywords: group medical visits; health care efficiencies; mood disorders; satisfaction.

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