Medical visit companions boost care satisfaction
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Elderly people who bring along a companion when they visit their doctor may be more satisfied with the care they receive than those who go it alone, a study indicates.
"Patients' visit companions, hidden, but in plain sight, are a valuable quality of care resource whose efforts, if further optimized, could enhance the experience of care for millions of vulnerable Americans," conclude Drs. Jennifer L. Wolff and Debra L. Roter, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore in a report published today in the medical journal Archives of Internal Medicine.
Among 12,018 Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 and older surveyed in 2004, Wolff and Roter found that roughly 39 percent reported regularly being accompanied to medical visits, most often by their spouse (53 percent) and grown children (32 percent), followed by other relatives (7 percent), roommates, friends or neighbors (5 percent), non-relatives (3 percent); or nurses, nurse aides or legal or financial officers (less than 1 percent).
Accompanied patients were older, less educated and in worse health than their unaccompanied counterparts.
Sixty-four percent of companions helped with communication by jotting down the doctor's comments and instructions, sharing information about the patient's medical condition with the doctor, asking questions and explaining doctor's instructions.
More than half (52 percent) of the medical visit companions said they assisted with transportation, 28 percent said they were there for company and moral support, 17 percent to help schedule appointments and 8 percent to provide physical assistance.
According to Wolff and Roter, elderly individuals with regular companions on their trips to the doctor were more satisfied with their doctor's technical skills, information-giving and interpersonal skills.
These findings, Wolff and Roter say, "establish that visit companions, most often spouses and adult children, are commonly present in older adults' routine medical encounters, actively engaged in the exchange of health information between patients and their physicians and influential in patients' perceptions of physician interpersonal rapport and information giving."
SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, July 14, 2008.
