Parallel paths? Patient and doctor priorities in psychiatric outpatient consultations.
BACKGROUND
In England, a large proportion of general adult psychiatric consultations are outpatient appointments.


OBJECTIVE
To assess whether patients and doctors agree on the key components of outpatient consultations.


METHODS
Separate patient and doctor focus groups were conducted to generate perceived key components of the outpatient consultation for each group. A self-report questionnaire was then constructed, to assess how important these key components were considered to be by both patients and doctors in the clinical setting. The key components were rated in relation to specific consultations the participants were about to have. Paired responses were collated and analysed for similarity indices between patients and their doctors.


RESULTS
One-hundred-and-three patient-doctor pairs completed the pre-appointment questionnaire. There was no statistically significant agreement detected between pairs of patients and doctors on the importance of any of the six key components of a general adult outpatient consultation generated by the patient and doctor focus groups.


CONCLUSIONS
Patients and their psychiatrists disagree on the key components of an outpatient consultation. However, patient priorities are central to service delivery. Therefore, listening to the patients' priorities highlighted in this article is important to achieve patient-centred services.
Thomson
Samuel
S
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, Nottingham, UK. moncrief5@hotmail.com
Doody
Gillian
G
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006292:Health Priorities; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010045:Outpatients; D018802:Patient-Centered Care / Q000379:methods; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011570:Psychiatry; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult