Patients’ expectations from internists, psychiatrists and surgeons

Introduction: Treatment is a complicated phenomenon which is influenced by a
lot of factors. An important factor which directly affects patients’ treatment is the
relationship between patient and physicians. This study was conducted to
investigate the expectations of patients from their physicians.
Methods: The target population in this cross-sectional study was all patients who,
for the first time, refer to internists, psychiatrists and surgeons. Fifty patients
from each group were randomly selected. Before medical examination, they
completed two separate pre-designed questionnaires. The first one was a
demographic questionnaire and the second one was about expectations of the
patients from physicians. The collected data were analyzed using statistical test
for proportions.
Results: The results showed that characteristics such as age, marital status, job,
number of children and income have little or no significant effect on patients’
expectations from physician. The only characteristics which significantly affect
their expectations were sex and education level. Providing necessary information,
matching the information with their education level, spending enough time to
examine patients and providing information about drug side effects were other
factors which were emphasized.
Conclusion: Paying attention to patients’ expectations has an effective role in
their recovery. It seems that physicians management during medical examination
and giving more information about the disease and the medications are effective
in patients’ satisfaction.