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

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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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).

Detailed Description
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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.

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

Conditions
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Patient Satisfaction, Doctor Satisfaction, Duration of Consultation

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: Writing down request for help


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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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
Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| No Intervention: Control group<br>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<br>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<br>* Patients in the intervention group could write down their request for help on a request card (with a maximum of 2 questions).<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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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) | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Patient Satisfaction, Request for help, General practice