The Clinician-Patient Partnership Paradigm: Outcomes Associated With Physician Communication Behavior

¹ University of Michigan
² University of California
³ University of Michigan School of Public Health
⁴ University of Michigan School of Education

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: nmclark{at}umich.edu.

	Abstract

Objective To identify physician communication behaviors associated with perceptions of quality of care and predictive of positive patient outcomes. Patients and Methods A total of 452 families seeing 48 pediatricians for a child’s asthma participated. Perceptions and health care use were assessed at baseline and after 12 months through interviews and medical records. The measures used were 10 physician communication behaviors and 6 items describing physician’s performance, asthma office visits, emergency department visits, and hospitalization. Results Positive perceptions of physicians’ performance were related to (P .05) careful listening, inquiring about at-home management, nonverbal attention, interactive conversation, tailoring short-term goals, and long-term therapeutic plan. Loss in health care use was predicted (P .05) by interactive conversation, short-term goals, criteria for decision making, long-term treatment plan, and tailoring according to needs. The use of these techniques did not lengthen the patient visit. A clinician-patient partnership paradigm is provided based on these findings. Conclusions The specific clinician communication behaviors predicted reduced health care use and positive perceptions of quality of care.

First published on September 27, 2007, doi:10.1177/0009922807305650

Clinical Pediatrics 2008;47:49.

A more recent version of this article appeared on February 1, 2008


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