Patient enablement and its related factors in family medicine clinic of a general hospital

Abstract

Objective To assess the patient enablement level in a general hospital and its related factors, to investigate the relationship of patient enablement with patient′s overall satisfaction and doctor′s empathy levels. Methods Patients attending the Family Medicine Clinic of HKU-Shenzhen Hospital in September 2014 and met the inclusion criteria were asked to complete a questionnaire survey which included general characteristics, overall satisfaction; the Patient Enablement Instrument (PEI) and the Consultation and Relational Empathy Measure Scale (CARE) after the consultation. Results Total 2 326 questionnaires were issued and 1 818 were retrieved, of which 1 478 were qualified questionnaires. The qualified rate of PEI was 81.3% and the qualified rate of patient overall satisfaction was 96.28%. The positive rate of patient enablement was 97.70% (1 444/1 478), and the mean score of PEI was 8.21±3.33. Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that the PEI scores were not influenced by gender and education level of the patients, gender of the consulting doctors and initial/follow up consultation. The PEI scores were influenced by the age of the patients, the types of clinic (general practice/chronic practice clinic) and the reasons for consulting (P<0.05). There were correlations between PEI score and overall satisfaction of patients (r=0.383, P<0.001), patient′s recommendation of the clinic (r=0.595, P<0.001)and CARE scores (r=0.546, P<0.001). Conclusion The results show that the PEI scores of patients visiting family medicine clinic of this hospital are higher than those reported in other studies. The PEI score may be influenced by the age of the patients, the types of clinic and the reasons for consulting. Positive correlations between patient enablement and the overall satisfaction, patient′s recommendation and doctor empathy were observed. Key words: Questionnaires; Patient enablement; General practitioners