Interruption and patient satisfaction in resident‐patient consultations

The purpose of this paper is to examine interruption patterns between residents and patients as well as the correlations between three categories of interruptions and patient satisfaction.

A total of 40 resident/patient consultations in a Canadian clinic were audiotaped, transcribed and analyzed for intrusive, cooperative and unsuccessful interruptions.

Residents made significantly more interruptions than patients, especially in the categories of intrusive interruptions. These findings provide support for situated identity theory. High correlations were found between residents and patients on all three categories of interruptions, providing unequivocal support for communication accommodation theory. Patient satisfaction was negatively correlated with residents' intrusive interruptions and positively correlated with residents' cooperative interruptions. Patient satisfaction was higher among patients those who inserted more cooperative interruptions; to increase patient satisfaction, it is necessary to raise patient participation in the medical consultation. In comparison with healthier patients, sicker patients were interrupted more frequently and were less satisfied with the way they were treated.

The negative correlations between residents' intrusive interruption and patient satisfaction, as well as the positive correlation between patient satisfaction and residents' cooperative interruption provides evidence that patients' perception of the medical consultation is shaped by the nature of interruptions.