How patients would like to improve medical consultations: Insights from a multicentre European study.
OBJECTIVE
In a previous qualitative study (GULiVer-I), a series of lay-people derived recommendations ('tips') was listed for doctor and patient on 'How to make medical consultation more effective from the patient's perspective'. This work (GULiVer-II) aims to find evidence whether these tips can be generally applied, by using a quantitative approach, which is grounded in the previous qualitative study.


METHODS
The study design is based on a sequential mixed method approach. 798 patients, representing United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands, were invited to assess on four point Likert scales the importance of the GULiVer-I tips listed in the 'Patient Consultation Values questionnaire'.


RESULTS
All tips for the doctor and the patient were considered as (very) important by the majority of the participants. Doctors' and patients' contributions to communicate honestly, treatment and time management were considered as equally important (65, 71 and 58% respectively); whereas the contribution of doctors to the course and content of the consultation was seen as more important than that of patients.


CONCLUSIONS
The relevance of GULiVer-I tips is confirmed, but tips for doctors were assessed as more important than those for patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Doctors and patients should pay attention to these "tips" in order to have an effective medical consultation.
Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Section of Clinical Psychology, University of Verona, Italy. Electronic address: mariangela.mazzi@univr.it.
Maria Angela
MA
Mazzi
Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Section of Clinical Psychology, University of Verona, Italy.
Michela
M
Rimondini
NIVEL, Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Wienke G W
WG
Boerma
Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Section of Clinical Psychology, University of Verona, Italy.
Christa
C
Zimmermann
NIVEL, Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, Utrecht, The Netherlands; Department of Psychology, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Jozien M
JM
Bensing
D000328:Adult; D003142:Communication; D005060:Europe; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
Doctor–patient communication; General practice; Patient perspective; Sequential mixed method approach