Gabbing doctors not helping patients, study finds

Green Lantern · #1 06-26-2007, 12:18 PM

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddly...6?pageNumber=1

Gabbing doctors not helping patients, study finds

By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Too much personal talk by doctors can be bad medicine, according to a study published on Monday in which U.S. researchers sent actors posing as new patients to see doctors in secretly recorded visits.
Doctors often wasted time in what already may have been short visits and stifled the flow of information from patients by gabbing about themselves, their own health problems, their families and their political beliefs, the study found.
The doctors engaged in such "personal disclosures" in 34 percent of visits tracked by the researchers. The personal talk may have been well-intentioned -- to deepen a doctor-patient relationship -- but yielded little of value to patients and sometimes was counterproductive, the researchers said.
"We found that physician self-disclosures were often non sequiturs, unattached to any discussion in the visit, and focused more on the physician's than the patient's needs," they wrote in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine. Read More

Green Lantern · #2 06-26-2007, 12:19 PM

Looking at your own doctor patient relationships, what do you think? Does your doctor talk too much about their self during your visits?

HEDDY · #3 06-26-2007, 12:35 PM

All of my doctors are completely focused on me. My dentist talks about personal stuff but it is more like she is your friend and she still does her job so I don't see in the harm in sharing stories or what have you to your patients.

race24fan · #4 06-26-2007, 01:17 PM

My doctor is so fast I really never get to see him and their is never talk about social or personal stuff it is all business with him. This is good for me because I don't like to spend a lot of time at a doctors office

SCRAPPY · #5 06-27-2007, 11:15 AM

My doc is pretty good at keeping it short and to the point. Never at my appointments more than I need to be..Hate being at the doctors as it is.. Though, not as much as I hate the dentist..

Curly · #6 06-27-2007, 12:49 PM

I'm in and out like a drug deal.

HEDDY · #7 06-27-2007, 01:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Curly

I'm in and out like a drug deal.

You are too funny!

rstonecousley · #8 06-27-2007, 01:23 PM

The less i talk to my doc the better. And he knows that. The less we talk, the better I feel I am....If he starts chit-chatting and stuff it makes me nervous!

Slacker · #9 06-27-2007, 02:25 PM

My primary care physician is the best. He will listen and try to understand what is happening. He has a great sense of humor also. Always cracking a joke. His whole staff makes his office inviting believe it or not. Some of the other doctors I have come across I wonder if they got their degree off the back of a match book cover.

__________________
KDTWEB

Maryland Chat

Shadow Walker · #10 08-22-2007, 12:33 AM

the only doctor i have gone to on any sort of repeated basic is a GP and a damned good one IMO. he can be very friendly but will not hesitate to tell it like it is, making sure you understand as fully as possible.

Gabbing doctors not helping patients, study finds

Health and Wellness