¿Cuáles son las expectativas de los pacientes cuando acuden a una consulta de atención primaria y qué piensan los médicos sobre ellas?

Abstract

Aims: To assess patient expectations at general practitioner (GP) visits, and compare them with what GPs think about them.

Material and method: Cross sectional study of patients attending GPs consultations. Physicians sample from Andalusia. Before the consultation patients were asked to select, from a list of 10 expectations, the most important they had for that particular visit. They were then asked to prioritise them into the 3 most and least important. Doctors received the list of 10 expectations and were asked to select which expectations they considered as the most important for a patient when consulting; doctors had also to prioritise the 3 most and least important expectations.

Results: The study included 805 patients, 140 physicians. Out of the list of ten expectations, patients marked as important for that particular visit an average of 7.7. 797 (99%) patients claimed the important ones for them were three or more, but 207 (30%) were not able to prioritise more than two. When doctors prioritised the most important expectation, within the first three, they coincided with patients in two of them: the first, (listening) and the third (explaining). Similarly, doctors coincided with patients in the two least important expectations: to be referred and to receive a prescription. Out of the list of ten expectations, doctors over-scored significantly the patients wishes for receiving a diagnosis (43%), advice (40%), to be referred (35%), to receive a prescription (25%), a test (17%) and be examined (15%).

Conclusions: General expectations as regards physician-patient communication are more important for patients than other more specific ones. Generally, physicians agree with patients in this assessment, but they over-estimated patient wishes of receiving prescriptions, tests or to be referred.