Effects of Writing Down the Request for Help on Patient Satisfaction in General Practices

Effects of Writing Down the Request for Help With Regard to Patient Satisfaction in General Practices

The primary objective of this study is to determine whether exploring the request for help more thoroughly improves patient satisfaction in general practice (primary care).

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Patient Satisfaction; Doctor Satisfaction; Duration of Consultation
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Writing down request for help

Detailed Description

Patient satisfaction has been an important topic of interest in primary health care during the last decade(s). Many factors during the consultation influence patient satisfaction. One of the aspects in a consultation is the request for help; especially in primary care the request for help has been recognised as an important aspect influencing patient satisfaction. The investigators hypothesized that exploring the request for help more thoroughly would improve patient satisfaction in general practice.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 209
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Netherlands
  • Overijssel
    • Zwolle, Overijssel, Netherlands, 8025 AB
      • Isala Clinics

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: ADULT; OLDER_ADULT; CHILD
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• All patients with a new request for help.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Dementia
• Mental disability
• No or little knowledge of the Dutch language
• Illiteracy
• Limited vision

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: SINGLE

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
NO_INTERVENTION: Control group; Patients in the control group were asked to participate in a patient satisfaction study. They were asked to fill in a questionnaire with respect to patient satisfaction.
EXPERIMENTAL: Use of request card; Patients in the intervention group were told that the practice was participating in a patient satisfaction study, and they were given an envelope with information about the 'doorknob phenomenon' and a request card. The envelope for the control group only consisted of information about a patient satisfaction study, without any information on the 'doorknob phenomenon', and without a request card. Both groups received the same letter with patient information about the study.	Other: Writing down request for help; Patients in the intervention group could write down their request for help on a request card (with a maximum of 2 questions).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Patient satisfaction measured with the Consultation Satisfaction Questionnaire	The primary endpoint is the 'Professional Care' (PC) scale of the 'Consultation Satisfaction Questionnaire' (CSQ). In a previous study the score on the PC were 88.2 en 80.9 in the intervention and control groups, respectively. The standard deviations were 11.8 en 16.1. For our sample size calculation we used an expected standard deviation of 15. The sample size required to detect a difference of 7 on the PC scale between the intervention and control group, with a power of 90%, and alpha of 5% (two-tailed), and a standard deviation of 15, was 196 patients. We rounded this number off to 200.	15-30 minutes (after the consultation patients filled in the questionnaire)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Patient satisfaction measured with the Visual Analog Scale	On a scale of 0-10 patients could fill in the Visual Analog Scale with regard to the patient satisfaction during the consultation	15-30 minutes (patients filled in the Visual Analog Scale after the consultation)
Doctor satisfaction measured with the Visual Analog Scale	On a scale from 0-10 general practitioners could fill in the Visual Analog Scale with regard to their own satisfaction about the consultation	15-30 minutes (general pracitioners filled in the Visual Analog Scale after the consultation)
Duration of the consultation	Duration of the consultation was compared between both groups	15-30 minutes (after the consultation the doctor measured the time with a stopwatch)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Nanne Kleefstra
• Investigators: Study Chair: Henk Bilo, Medical Research Centre

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: January 1, 2011
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): March 1, 2011
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): May 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 21, 2011
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 4, 2011
• First Posted (ESTIMATE): November 6, 2011

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ESTIMATE): November 6, 2011
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 4, 2011
• Last Verified: November 1, 2011

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: General practice; Patient Satisfaction; Request for help
• Other Study ID Numbers: EffectsPS1