BMJ quality & safety
-
BMJ quality & safety · Oct 2011
Randomized Controlled TrialThe ability of a behaviour-specific patient questionnaire to identify poorly performing doctors.
Doctors' ability to communicate with patients varies. Patient questionnaires are often used to assess doctors' communication skills. ⋯ Using a patient-reported questionnaire of doctors' communication skills, favourable assessments of doctors by patients were mostly discordant with the views of expert observers. Only very poor performance identified by patients was in agreement with the views of expert observers. The results suggest that patient reports alone may not be sufficient to identify all doctors whose communication skills need improvement training.