The Time Allowed to Patients to Explain Their Problem in Outpatient Clinics of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences Hospitals

Introduction: Listening to patients is essential for medical practice and patient care. This study was conducted to determine the time given to patients to explain their problem before being interrupted and redirected by clinical faculties in outpatient clinics of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. Methods: The cross-sectional observational descriptive study was carried out in year 2011-2012, by observing and audio recording 330 clinical consultations from 30 faculty member physicians. The sample size was determined by doing a pilot study and the faculties were selected randomly using stratified sampling. The time initially given to patients to explain their problem before being interrupted and redirected by physicians was measured in seconds using a chronometer. An MP3 recorder was used for audio recording. Data were collected by non-participatory observation method. Descriptive statistics was used along with ANOVA, t test, correlation and regression for data analysis. Results: Participation rate in patients and physicians were 93% and 46%, respectively. The physicians had a mean age of 47, included both male(70% ) and female(30%), and were mainly assistant professors(67%). Data from 320 observations were analyzed. The average time given to the patients to explain their problems was 9.5±0.55 seconds. The given times were negatively correlated with number of booked appointments(r= -0.15, p≤0.007) and positively correlated with total consultation time(r=0.21, p≤0.0001). Conclusion: The findings show that the clinical faculties are giving relatively less time to their patients compared with the similar studies. Poor performance of faculties as the role models of future doctors leads to students’ cynicism for professional medical standards. Future projects are recommended in order to set standards for medical practice and maximum workload of physicians.