Surgeons' perceptions of their patients' priorities.
OBJECTIVE
To compare cataract surgeons' predictions of patient responses to patients' actual responses on 13 factors that are important to patients about to have cataract surgery and are likely to affect their satisfaction.


METHODS
Day-stay cataract surgery units at a large private hospital and a large public hospital.


METHODS
Patients (private and public) were asked to rate the importance of 13 factors regarding their cataract treatment. All cataract surgeons who regularly treated cataract patients in a large metropolitan city were randomized to a public or private group and sent the same 13 factors. The surgeons were asked to rate how important each factor is to their public or private patients, as appropriate.


RESULTS
Eighty-one patients and 77 doctors responded to the survey. Overall, doctors predicted that all items would be more important to private patients than to public patients, even though no significant difference existed between the patient groups. Doctors correctly identified public patients' priorities but underestimated the magnitude of overall importance. In contrast, doctors recognized the magnitude of overall importance to private patients but misjudged many priorities. Doctors underestimated the importance to patients of nonsurgical characteristics such as seeing the same doctor, having a pleasant location for appointments, and waiting time for surgery.


CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrates significant discordance between patients' priorities when having cataract surgery and their doctors' perception of those priorities. These differences could be explained by doctors' stereotypes of public patients and insufficient appreciation of the nonmedical aspects of patient care.
Pager
Chet K
CK
Department of Clinical Ophthalmology and Eye Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
McCluskey
Peter J
PJ
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001315:Australia; D002387:Cataract Extraction; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006292:Health Priorities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D009885:Ophthalmology; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology*; D017149:Private Sector; D011639:Public Opinion; D017150:Public Sector; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data