Patient-Centered Communication and Diagnostic Testing
Ann Fam Med Epstein et al.
3: 415
The Issue in Brief
Patient Centered Communication and Diagnostic Testing
By Ronald Epstein, MD, and colleagues
Background:
In patient-centered communication (PCC), doctors help patients feel understood by asking about their needs, perspectives and expectations, and patients are involved in decisions about their care. PCC can improve health and patient trust, but little is known about whether it affects health care costs. This study looked at the relationship between PCC and expenditures for diagnostic testing.
What this study found:
Doctors who use a patient-centered communication style tend to have lower diagnostic testing expenditures and longer patient visits.
Implications
• Encouraging PCC would not necessarily drive up health care costs.
• PCC is important not only for its potential contribution to lowering diagnostic testing expenditure; it is also important for its positive effects on patients and their health.
