title: The Impact of Patient-to-Patient Interaction in Health Facility Waiting Rooms on Their Perception of Health Professionals.
abstract: Patients have to wait in waiting rooms prior to seeing the physician. But there are few studies that demonstrate what they are actually doing in the waiting room. This exploratory study was designed to investigate the types of discussions that patients in the waiting room typically engage in with other patients and how the conversations affected their opinion on general reputation of the clinic, injections/blocks as treatment procedures, waiting time, time spent with the caregiver, overall patient satisfaction, and the pain medication usage policy. The study demonstrates that patient interaction in the waiting room has a positive effect on patient opinion of the pain clinic and the caregivers.
authors.forename: William Kent
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Willis
authors.forename: Ahmet Ozzie
authors.initials: AO
authors.lastname: Ozturk
authors.forename: Ashish
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chandra
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities; D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology*; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: patient education; patient-centered decision making; waiting room; word-of-mouth marketing