Patient-centeredness in psychiatric work disability evaluations and the reproducibility of work capacity estimates.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the extent of patient-centeredness in psychiatric work disability evaluations and its association with the reproducibility of work capacity (WC) estimates. METHODS: In our mixed methods study, 29 video-taped interviews conducted in psychiatric work disability evaluations were coded with the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS) and different measures of patient-centeredness were derived from these codings, including a summary patient-centred communication ratio. Four experts each estimated a claimant's WC on a scale from 0% to 100%. RESULTS: Patient-centred communication ratios were always >1, suggesting a preponderance of psychosocial information exchange. In contrast, utterances reflecting empathy were rare e.g., the expert did not address the claimant's emotions in 25 of 29 interviews. None of the derived patient-centeredness measures showed a significant association with WC reproducibility. CONCLUSIONS: Many of the experts' questions addressed the claimant's lifestyle and psychosocial situation. However, this likely reflected factual requirements for the expert opinion, rather than patient-centeredness. Indeed, the experts rarely showed empathy, which is a hallmark characteristic of patient-centeredness. The reproducibility of work capacity estimates was not modulated by patient-centeredness, irrespective of its quantification. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Patient-centeredness in work disability evaluations should find its entry in continuing education of experts.

Using interpreters in medical consultations: What is said and what is translated-A descriptive analysis using RIAS.

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the concordance of original utterances by healthcare providers (HCP) and patients with the corresponding translations by interpreters using the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS). METHODS: Video recordings of interpreted consultations were transcribed. Transcription was performed by professional interpreters, who first transcribed consultations in both languages, then provided a translation of what was said in the foreign language. Based on the translations, the videos were coded and analysed using RIAS. RESULTS: Overall, 19 consultations with a total recording time of 865min were analysed. The main finding is the large difference in the number of utterances in the original language compared to the number of utterances in the target language: about one third of the HCPs' and the patients' utterances were not translated. In no instance were omissions explained to HCP or patient. CONCLUSION: Interpreters in this sample did not always translate what had been said precisely; they omitted utterances by both HCPs and patients. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: All participants of an interpreted consultation must be made aware of potential omissions in the process of translation. Further understanding of the causes and consequences of omissions is needed.

Improving Communication in Adolescent Cancer Care: A Multiperspective Study.

BACKGROUND: Professionals treating adolescents with cancer must communicate well with them and their parents. Evidence suggests that the communication needs of this population are rarely met. Skills training can improve professional communication, but has been criticized for not being based on the experience of the participants in the clinical encounter. We took a multiperspective approach, drawing on perspectives of former adolescents with cancer, patients' parents, physicians, and nurses with the aim to provide suggestions for improvement in communication in adolescent cancer care. METHODS: Adolescent cancer survivors (n = 16), parents (n = 8), pediatric oncologists (n = 12), and pediatric oncology nurses (n = 18) participated in 11 focus groups. They discussed their experiences communicating with each other. Transcripts were analyzed by thematic analysis. RESULTS: We identified themes within the following sections: (1) The framework in which professionals communicate with adolescents with cancer (regression in a time of detachment, adolescents' perception and knowledge of illness, cognitive versus legal maturity, "lost in transition" between pediatric and adult oncology); (2) communication difficulties between professionals and patients and parents (professionals and patients/parents identified the other party as the source of difficulties), and (3) effective professional communication (there was some overlap on how doctors and nurses should communicate, along with substantially different expectations for the two professions). CONCLUSIONS: The framework within which professionals communicate, the different perspectives on the factors that make communication difficult, and the different expectations regarding good communication by doctors and nurses should be considered when communication skills training courses are developed for professionals who work in adolescent oncology.

Designing questionnaires: healthcare survey to compare two different response scales.

BACKGROUND: A widely discussed design issue in patient satisfaction questionnaires is the optimal length and labelling of the answering scale. The aim of the present study was to compare intra-individually the answers on two response scales to five general questions evaluating patients' perception of hospital care. METHODS: Between November 2011 and January 2012, all in-hospital patients at a Swiss University Hospital received a patient satisfaction questionnaire on an adjectival scale with three to four labelled categories (LS) and five redundant questions displayed on an 11-point end-anchored numeric scale (NS). The scales were compared concerning ceiling effect, internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha), individual item answers (Spearman's rank correlation), and concerning overall satisfaction by calculating an overall percentage score (sum of all answers related to the maximum possible sum). RESULTS: The response rate was 41% (2957/7158), of which 2400 (81%) completely filled out all questions. Baseline characteristics of the responders and non-responders were similar. Floor and ceiling effect were high on both response scales, but more pronounced on the LS than on the NS. Cronbach's alpha was higher on the NS than on the LS. There was a strong individual item correlation between both answering scales in questions regarding the intent to return, quality of treatment and the judgement whether the patient was treated with respect and dignity, but a lower correlation concerning satisfactory information transfer by physicians or nurses, where only three categories were available in the LS. The overall percentage score showed a comparable distribution, but with a wider spread of lower satisfaction in the NS. CONCLUSIONS: Since the longer scale did not substantially reduce the ceiling effect, the type of questions rather than the type of answering scale could be addressed with a focus on specific questions about concrete situations instead of general questions. Moreover, the low correlation in questions about information provision suggests that only three possible response choices are insufficient. Further investigations are needed to find a more sensitive scale discriminating high-end ratings. Otherwise, a longitudinal within-hospital or a cross-sectional between-hospital comparison of patient care is questionable.

The relationship between hospital patients' ratings of quality of care and communication.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the relationship between hospital patients' quality of care ratings and their experiences with health-related information exchanges and communication during hospitalization. DESIGN: Cross-sectional multivariate dimensional analysis of data from a quality of care experience questionnaire of hospital patients comparing scores across three levels of reported satisfaction. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Five thousand nine hundred and fifty-two patients from a Swiss University Hospital responded to the questionnaire at discharge during 2010. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Survey questions measuring patients' evaluation of quality of care, patient loyalty and overall satisfaction. RESULTS: Different levels of reported satisfaction are associated with differing experiences of health-related information and communication during a hospital stay. CONCLUSIONS: Patients who report lower satisfaction appear to attribute to the hospital staff enduring negative dispositions from behaviours that may be due to specific situational contexts. Negative experiences appear to influence scores on most other communication and information domains. Patients who report higher satisfaction, in contrast, appear to differentiate negative experiences and positive experiences and they appear to relativize and compartmentalize negative experiences associated with their hospital stay.

Swiss Cancer League communication skills training programme for oncology nurses: an evaluation.

AIM: This paper is a report of an evaluation of the effectiveness of a communication skills training programme for oncology nurses. BACKGROUND: Clinical care for patients with cancer is increasingly being divided between nurses and physicians, with nurses being responsible for the continuity of patient care, and oncologists choosing and explaining the basics of anti-cancer therapy. Therefore, oncology nurses will profit from evidence-based communication skills training to allow them to perform in a professional way. METHODS: Between 2003 and 2006 pre- and post-intervention videos of interviews with simulated patients were compared using the Roter Interaction Analysis System. Patient centeredness was assessed by counting segments of appropriate mutual responding to cues and by calculating length of uninterrupted patient speech. FINDINGS: Appropriate empathic (1.6% vs. 3.2%), reassuring statements (2.3% vs. 3.4%), questions concerning psychosocial information (2.8% vs. 4.0%) increased statistically significantly; utterances containing medical information decreased on the part of nurses (17.8% vs. 13.3%) and patients (8.1% vs. 6.7%); and patients provided more psychosocial information (3.3% vs. 5.7%). The level of congruence and empathic responses to patients' emotional cues increased statistically significantly, as did the length of uninterrupted speech (3.7-4.3 utterances; all P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The communication skills training of the Swiss Cancer League could be used as a model to achieve substantial improvements in patient-centred communication. Sequence analysis of utterances from patient-provider interaction should be used to assess the amount of patient-centred talk.

Hospital patients' preferences for involvement in decision-making. A questionnaire survey of 1040 patients from a Swiss university hospital.

OBJECTIVES: Assessing patients' preferences for shared decision-making and receiving information. DESIGN: Cross-sectional cohort study. SETTING: University Hospital in Northwest Switzerland. PARTICIPANTS: 1825 in-patients (mean age: 58 years, 48.7% female) were asked to participate, 1040 patients responded (59%). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Proportion of positive answers to two questions depicting typical elements of shared decision-making plus a question asking for patients' information needs. These questions were embedded in a questionnaire sent to patients two weeks after discharge from the hospital, asking for perceived deficits during their hospital stay and socio-demographic characteristics. RESULTS: 779/947 (79.1%) agreed to the statement: "One should stick to the physician's advice even if one is not fully convinced of his ideas". 620/945 (65.6%) agreed to the statement: "It should completely be left to physicians to decide on a patient's treatment." 914/952 (96%) agreed to the statement: "Even when the news is bad the patient must be informed." Older patients and less educated patients are more likely to agree with the first two statements, patients with a non-Swiss cultural background favour the information needs statement slightly less than other patients (92.4 vs 96.7% agreement). The severity of illness had no influence on agreeing or not. However, patients who disagreed on any statement were more likely to report a lack of information from the hospital. CONCLUSIONS: A substantial number of patients in this study wanted the physician to take medical decisions. Yet, almost all patients wanted honest information about their health status. Health professionals have to find out to what extent an individual patient wants to be involved in decision-making.

A theory-based approach to analysing conversation sequences.

AIMS: To assess the quality of communication generally two procedures are used: one defines categories of utterances and counts their frequency, the other uses global observer ratings. We investigated whether a sequence analysis of utterances yields results which more precisely reflect the process of a conversation. METHODS: We re-examined data from a randomised controlled intervention study in which residents' interviews with simulated patients were analysed with the Maastricht History and Advice Checklist (MAAS-R) and the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS). Using the U-file of the RIAS we studied the effect of different types of physician questions (open, closed questions, facilitators, other physician actions) on the length of uninterrupted patients' speech and content of utterances. We investigated also whether reciprocity indices improve after a communication skills training, and whether they correlate with global scores form MAAS-R. RESULTS: Patients respond to a closed question with a mean of 1.78 (+/- 1.49) utterances as compared to 2.75 (+/- 2.72) utterances after an open question. The likelihood of a concern was more than 10 fold higher after an open question compared to closed questions. Reciprocal sequences make up less than 2 percent of the conversation, Still, they correlate with global items form MAAS-R. The 'empathy index' improves after the training.

[Patient opinion surveys in the hospital: revalidation and improvement of a questionnaire]. / Patientenbefragung im Spital: Revalidierung und Optimierung eines Erhebungsinstrumentes.

Measures to improve quality of care in hospitals should best be based upon the results of patient surveys. The present paper reports in the validation of a questionnaire originally developed in the US in 658 patients from two Swiss hospitals in a tertiary care setting. Questionnaires were sent out two weeks after release from hospital, more than 75 percent of questionnaires were returned. Based upon the experience that feedback of many single items rarely results in distinct actions to improve quality of care a factor analysis followed by an analysis of reliability was undertaken to validate the instrument and to reduce the amount of information, to help hospital officials to deal with the data, and finally to reduce the number of items in the questionnaire. Factor analysis revealed a 3-factor-solution based upon 25 out of 37 deficit-oriented questions, explaining 34.4 % of total variance. The factors can be described as: 1. Patient information (9 items; explained variance: 13.0 %); 2. Patient involvement and shared decision making (11 items; explained variance: 11.2 %); 3. Nursing quality (5 items; explained variance: 10.2 %). Cronbach's alpha values of these scales are 0.75, 0.72, and 0.69, respectively. As further analyses show, reducing the item pool does not lead to the loss of relevant information. Single wards show substantial differences in scores based on these factors (e.g. between 10 and 27 percent deficit in factor 2). The sensitivity of the factors in describing specific profiles of single wards will help to target measures to improve quality of care to those wards where improvement is most utterly needed.

[Communication matters--deficits in hospital care from the patients' perspective]. / Kommunikation ist wesentlich - Defizite der Betreuung im Krankenhaus aus der Sicht von Patienten und Patientinnen.

The importance of professional communication for nursing staff and physicians is increasingly accepted. In order to support this tendency it would be helpful to investigate whether this development does reflect an actual need from the patients' perspective. The current investigation reports on the results of a questionnaire survey in 668 patients (79 % response rate) from two tertiary Swiss hospitals. Questionnaires were sent out two weeks after discharge from hospital. The questionnaire is mainly asking "reporting"-type questions, which ask a patient to describe what actually had happened and not to evaluate his or her experiences. Results show a high acceptance of the somewhat lengthy questionnaire (mean time to fill in the questionnaire: about one hour). Main deficits were concerned with a lack in communication competence in nurses and physicians: 18 out of 23 deficits mentioned by more than 10 % of patients' were in this area. The questionnaire describes deficits precisely enough to yield significant differences between single wards.