Good physicians from the perspective of their patients

BACKGROUND It is not currently known what is the patient's viewpoint of a "good" physician. We set out to define patient's priorities regarding different physician's attributes in 3 domains important in medical care. METHODS Patients hospitalized or attending clinics at a large teaching hospital selected the 4 attributes that they considered most important out of 21 listed arbitrarily in a questionnaire. The questionnaire included 7 items each in the domains of patient autonomy, professional expertise and humanism. RESULTS Participating patients (n = 445, mean age 57.5 +/- 16 years) selected professional expertise (50%), physician's patience and attentiveness (38% and 30%, respectively), and informing the patient, representing the patient's interests, being truthful and respecting patient's preferences (25-36% each) as the most essential attributes. Patient's selections were not significantly influenced by different demographic or clinical background. Selections of attributes in the domain of patient's autonomy were significantly more frequent and this was the preferred domain for 31% and as important as another domain for 16%--significantly more than the domain of professional expertise (P = 0.008), and much more than the domain of humanism and support (P < 0.0005). CONCLUSIONS Patients studied want their physicians to be highly professional and expert clinicians and show humaneness and support, but their first priority is for the physician to respect their autonomy.