Abstract
In medical consultations, the length of the visit has a significant impact on the quality of care. It is significantly associated with a better quality of treatment and better health outcomes. In this study, we analyzed doctors’ consultation length with patients and associated factors in Bangladesh. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among the patients (N = 763) who visited the doctors in six district/upazila (sub-district) hospitals in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) area. Linear regression analyses were performed to identify the determining factors associated with the length of doctors’ appointments with patients. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 24.0. Among the patients, 319 (41.8%) were female and 688 (90.2%) lived in rural/suburban areas. This study revealed that the average length of medical consultations was 9.10 min. Additionally, our findings illustrated that doctors’ patient-centered communication behavior (β = 0.23, p < 0.001) appeared to be the strongest predictor of longer visit length. It was also found that patients’ higher education level (β = 0.10, p = 0.006), having adequate knowledge about the health problem (β = 0.13, p < 0.001), follow-up visits (β = 0.13, p < 0.001), and the presence of female doctors (β = 0.19, p < 0.001) were significantly associated with longer interview times between doctors and patients in primary care settings. Given that doctors’ patient-centered communication behavior appears to play the most important role, this study suggests that practicing professionalism in medical consultations, developing effective communication skills and increasing awareness of sociodemographic discrepancies are important to ensure longer appointment lengths and better health outcomes of patients, regardless their sociodemographic and socioeconomic status.
Highlights
Longer consultation times are considered to provide an important means of effective health communication between doctors and patients
The average consultation time in our study was much higher than previous studies, which reported that the average consultation time in a government hospital was 2.33 min [14], and 3.51 min has been reported in government facilities [15]
We found that doctors’ patient-centered communication behaviors were significantly associated with longer appointment lengths
Summary
Longer consultation times are considered to provide an important means of effective health communication between doctors and patients. It is associated with better quality of treatment and better health outcomes [1]. This is because the longer the appointment lasts, the more likely patients would be to participate, resulting in a more reliable outcome for the consultation [2,3,4]. Studies have shown that an increased consultation time can contribute to enhanced patient safety, medication adherence, decreased costs of medical malpractice, and increased patient satisfaction across the healthcare sector [5,6].
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