title: Sitting at patients' bedsides may improve patients' perceptions of physician communication skills.
abstract: Sitting at a patient's bedside in the inpatient setting is recommended as a best practice but has not been widely adopted. Previous studies suggest that a physician's seated posture may increase the patient's perception of time spent in the room but have not included hospitalists. We performed a cluster-randomized trial of seated versus standing physician posture during inpatient rounds on a hospitalist service at an academic medical center. Patients whose physician sat were significantly more likely to rate their physician highly on measures of listening carefully and explaining things in a way that was easy to understand. The average time spent in the patient's room was approximately 12 minutes and was not affected by physician posture. Patients' perception of the time their physician spent in their room was not affected by physician posture. Sitting at the bedside during rounds does not increase the amount of time spent with the patient but may improve patient-physician communication. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2015;11:865-868. © 2015 Society of Hospital Medicine.
authors.affiliation: Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
authors.forename: Susan E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Merel
authors.affiliation: Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.|Department of Oral Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
authors.forename: Christy M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: McKinney
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ufkes
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.
authors.forename: Alan C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Kwan
authors.affiliation: Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
authors.forename: Andrew A
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9859-0947
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: White
mesh_terms: D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D000328:Adult; D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D020445:Hospitalists; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010362:Patients' Rooms; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011187:Posture; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors