Abstract
Promoting patient-centered communication among physicians is one core strategy for improving physician–patient relationships and patient outcomes. Our study aims to understand the physicians’ attitudes towards patient-centered communication and its effects on physicians’ intention and behavior of involving patients in medical decisions in primary care in China. One cross-sectional study was conducted in primary facilities in Hubei province, China, from December 2019 to January 2020, where physicians’ attitudes towards patient-centered communication were measured by the Chinese-revised patient–practitioner orientation scale. Multilevel ordinal logistic regression was conducted for estimating the effects of physicians’ attitudes on their intention and behavior of patient involvement in medical decisions. Six hundred and seventeen physicians were investigated for the main study. Physicians had a medium score of patient-centered communication (3.78, SD = 0.56), with relatively high caring subscale score (4.59, SD = 0.64), and low sharing subscale score (3.09, SD = 0.75). After controlling physicians’ covariates, physicians’ attitudes towards patient-centered communication was significantly associated with a higher intention of involving patients in medical decisions (OR > 1, p = 0.020). Physicians’ positive attitudes towards patient-centered communication affected their intention of involving patients in medical decisions, which implies the importance of taking the physicians’ attitudes into account for the accomplishment of patient involvement processes.
Highlights
IntroductionIn contrast to a paternalistic biomedical approach, The Institute of Medicine defines patient-centered care as “providing care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs, and values and ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions” [3]
Patient-centered care is widely endorsed as a central component of high-quality health care [1,2].In contrast to a paternalistic biomedical approach, The Institute of Medicine defines patient-centered care as “providing care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs, and values and ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions” [3].Patient-centered communication has been raised as one of a physicians’ core competencies and skills
The present study focused on primary care facilities covering urban community health centers (CHCs) and rural township health centers (THCs)
Summary
In contrast to a paternalistic biomedical approach, The Institute of Medicine defines patient-centered care as “providing care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs, and values and ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions” [3]. Patient-centered communication has been raised as one of a physicians’ core competencies and skills. There is ample evidence of the importance of physician–patient communication, and patient-centered communication interventions have shown to improve the physician–patient relationship and patient healthcare outcomes [7,8]. Promoting patient-centered communication skills among physicians has been one recommended strategy by health scholars, health administrators, as well as healthcare organizations [4,8,9]
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