Profession
Small patient sample can show how a physician interacts with patients
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Feb. 6, 2006
It takes about 45 patients to determine how well a physician rates on measures used to determine communication quality, accessibility and coordination of care, according to a study published in the January Journal of General Internal Medicine.
"These findings reveal that among a modest-size sample of a physician's patients, it is possible to obtain a snapshot of what it is like to be a patient of that physician that appears to hold true from patient to patient," said lead study author Dana Gelb Safran, ScD, director of the Health Institute at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston.
The study surveyed 13,000 Massachusetts adult patients of 215 general practice physicians at 67 practices. On average, the researchers received 58 surveys per physician included in the study. Average performance scores varied more by individual physician and practice group than by health system, according to the study. The participating physicians were culled from the state's Medicaid program and five health plans.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2006/02/06/prbf0206.htm.
