Doctors need to shut up and listen!

Jun 26 2007

According to a new study from the U.S. many doctors need to shut up and listen.

Doctors it seems often waste time talking about their own problems in a well-intentioned effort to establish a patient relationship, rather than find out what is actually wrong with their patient.

Psychologists and doctors at the the University of Rochester who conducted the investigation believed at the outset that self-disclosure was an effective way to encourage patients to say more about their problems.

However they found that doctors spend too much time chatting, and not enough time treating patients that come to visit them with medical concerns.

The investigation by researchers from the Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry reached this conclusion after using actors posing as patients to visit doctors.

Each investigator independently reviewed and analyzed 113 transcripts of patient visits, rating the content for self-disclosure and its effect on the patient.

They discovered in relatively short visits, doctors often wasted time chatting about themselves and their own health problems instead of finding out why the patient was there to see them in the first place.

The researchers say while such disclosures seem an important way to build a personal connection, they found that doctors self-disclosures were 85% of the time 'non sequiturs' and unattached to any discussion in the visit, and focused more on the doctors needs than the patient's.

In fact this sort of behaviour was seen by the researchers in 34% of the fake visits.

Lead researcher Dr. Susan McDaniel, who is director of the Wynne Center for Family Research at the University of Rochester Medical Center, says self-disclosure is ultimately misguided, offers no demonstrable benefits and may even disrupt the flow of important patient information.

Patient visits says Dr. McDaniel should be focused on the patient and are not about the doctor.

The investigation is part of a larger study of patient communication and health outcomes funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

One hundred primary care physicians in the Rochester region agreed to participate, consenting to two unannounced and secretly recorded visits by people trained to portray specific patient roles.

The study is published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.