PHOENIX MEDICAL MANAGEMENT, INC.

A study done at the University of Kansas provides some fascinating data on bedside visits by doctors.  For more than a year, researchers at the teaching hospital timed one neurosurgeon as he met with 120 patients while on rounds. The doctor was randomly assigned to sit or stand during patient visits and the patients were interviewed after the doctor left the room.

Patients described the visit as significantly longer in cases when the surgeon sat and nearly all gave a favorable report describing the visit by commenting on how the doctor sat attentively to listen.  Fewer were as happy when the doctor stood.

But what did seem odd was just how long patients perceived the physician's visit lasted.  On average, the patients estimated the doctor stayed for nearly 4 minutes despite the fact that the average standing visit lasted 88 seconds.  When the surgeon sat, visits were actually shorter (1 min, 4 secs) but seemed longer to patients.