How patient-centred am I?: A new method to measure physicians’ patient-centredness

ObjectiveTo describe a new method to determine physicians’ self-perceived degree of patient-centredness. A pilot study combining qualitative and quantitative methods.MethodsForty-one general practitioners (GPs) answered a questionnaire consisting of three open-ended questions about their view of the consultation and by choosing among 28 roles of the physician in the physician–patient relationship. Twenty of the GPs had participated in Balint groups while 21 had had no access to Balint group. Patient-centredness is central to Balint groups and consequently Balint group participants would be expected to be patient-centred.ResultsThe answers to the two parts were divided into three groups each, patient-centred, non-patient-centred and intermediary, and analysed statistically. Significantly more Balint participants were patient-centred than the reference group.ConclusionThe instrument describes physicians’ self-perceptions of their patient-centredness and can distinguish a group of patient-centred physicians from a group of non-patient-centred physicians.Practice implicationsThe instrument can be useful to evaluate educational programmes and detect decline in patient-centredness as early sign of burnout.