PERCEPTIONS: WHEN PATIENTS HAVE THEIR SAY...........

October 4, 2002

The average patient visiting a doctor in the United States gets

22 seconds for his initial statement, then the doctor takes the lead.

This style of communication is probably based on the assumption that

patients will mess up the time schedule if allowed to talk as long as

they wish to.

and the NY Times Coverage below

Perceptions: When Patients Have Their Say

By JOHN O'NEIL

Are patients blabbermouths? Many doctors apparently think so.

Research has shown that doctors interrupt, on average, about 20

seconds after a patient begins to talk.

But a new Swedish study suggests that doctors actually have little to

fear from letting patients have their full say.

In the study, which was published on Friday in BMJ, the journal of

the British Medical Association, 14 doctors in the outpatient clinic

of University Hospital in Basel agreed to time their patients

surreptitiously while allowing them to talk without interruption at

the beginning of a visit.

They shut their timers off whenever the patients indicated that their

stories were complete with concluding lines like " That's all, doctor "

or " What do you think? "

The doctors had expected that the average statement would go on for

three and a half minutes.

In fact, the article said, the average patient finished in 92

seconds, and 78 percent were done within 2 minutes. Only 7 of the 335

patients hit the 5-minute mark, at which point the doctors were

allowed to cut in. " In all cases, " the article said, " doctors felt

that the patients were giving important information and should not be

interrupted. "

The study's lead author, Dr. Wolf Langewitz, sent this advice in an

e-mail message:

" To patients, I'd suggest: Be prepared! Don't start with your

complaints right away. Start with the agenda. E.g.: `Dear Dr. ,

On my list for today are the following items.' Wait until the doctor

pays attention! `First, what about the new pills you mentioned last

time. Second: My daughter's in trouble, perhaps you could help us?'

" Physicians should get the message, " Dr. Langewitz continued. " Listen

- it won't take long. "

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