Prevalence and nature of cost discussions during clinical appointments in companion animal practice.
OBJECTIVE
To determine prevalence and nature of cost discussions between veterinarians and pet owners during clinical appointments in companion animal practice.


METHODS
Cross-sectional descriptive study.


METHODS
20 veterinarians in companion animal practice in eastern Ontario and 350 clients and their pets.


METHODS
200 veterinarian-client-patient interactions were randomly selected from all videotaped interactions and analyzed with the Roter interaction analysis system. Additional proficiency codes and blocking functions were developed to capture the prevalence, nature, and context of cost discussions.


RESULTS
58 of the 200 (29%) appointments that were analyzed included a discussion of cost. During 38 of these 58 (66%) appointments, the discussion involved costs associated with the veterinarian's time or with services provided by the veterinarian. Overall, reference to a written estimate was made during only 28 of the 200 (14%) appointments. Cost discussions were most common during appointments in which a decision related to diagnostic testing or dentistry was made. Appointments were significantly longer when a cost discussion was included than when it was not.


CONCLUSIONS
Results of the present study suggested that discussions related to cost were relatively uncommon during clinical appointments in companion animal practice and that written estimates were infrequently used to aid these discussions. When discussions of cost did occur, veterinarians appeared to focus on explaining costs in terms of the veterinarian's time or services provided by the veterinarian, rather than on the medical information that could be obtained or the benefits to the future health or function of the pet.
Coe
Jason B
JB
Department of Population Medicine, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada.
Adams
Cindy L
CL
Bonnett
Brenda N
BN
D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic; D003142:Communication; D017048:Health Care Costs; D018634:Veterinarians; D014730:Veterinary Medicine / Q000191:economics*; D014743:Videotape Recording