Why Patients Change Doctors

Why do patients change doctors? This is Dr. Steven Andrew Davis, Speaking of Health. There’s a fairly new, dispassionate, though sometimes mournful reason many patients today change doctors: it’s because either the doctors or the patients change insurance plans. But the more passionate or unsettling reasons for changing doctors have been documented, too. One classic British study of over 1,400 patients found that doctor-patient relationships were broken by the patients for three main reasons: the patient’s own requirements; problems encountered with the physician’s practice; and problems with the physicians themselves.

The most common patient requirement mentioned was how far it was to the physician’s office. Problems with the doctor’s practice included long waits, “lack of continuity of care, and receptionists who were rude or not helpful.” The really big findings, though, had to do with the doctors themselves. Often, patients became dissatisfied with doctors when they simply lost confidence in them. There were many other reasons people became dissatisfied with their doctors. Some said their physicians were rude, they had problems with the doctor’s prescribing routines, or the doctor seemed to lack interest in the patients and their concerns. Some people switched doctors in part because they felt their doctor was too hurried or because the physician was a poor communicator.

Is there a doctor in the house? There will be if it’s well run and if the patients are treated like guests. For a copy of this script and journal reference, access our web site, speakingofhealth.com. Speaking of Health, I’m Dr. Steven Andrew Davis, for CBS News Radio.

Ref: American Family Physician. Aug, 1993