Taking a Friend to the Doctor a Good Idea

(July 15, 2008) - Taking a friend or a family member along when you go to the doctor just might make the trip more valuable. More than one-third of Medicare beneficiaries appear to be accompanied by family members or companions during medical encounters, according to a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Such medical visit companions may be associated with improved patient satisfaction, especially among beneficiaries in poor health.

Families are increasingly understood to be relevant to patient care, according to background information in the article. However, little is known about which specific attributes of their involvement are most helpful to patients or result in the greatest improvements in quality of care.

Researchers studied a sample of 12,018 Medicare beneficiaries 65 years or older who participated in a survey. These older adults were representative of approximately 30 million Medicare beneficiaries.

The researchers found that:

• 38.6 percent of participants reported regularly being accompanied to medical visits
• Companions included spouses (53.3 percent); adult children (31.9 percent); other relatives (6.8 percent); roommates, friends or neighbors (5.2 percent); non-relatives (2.8 percent); or nurses, nurse aides or legal or financial officers (less than 1 percent)
• 63.8 percent of companions helped with communication, including 44.1 percent who recorded physician comments and instructions, 41.5 percent who communicated information about the patient's medical condition to the physician, 41 percent who asked questions, 29.7 percent who explained physician's instructions and 3.3 percent who translated the English language
• 28.4 percent of companions were reported to be present for company and moral support, 52.3 percent to assist with transportation, 16.6 percent to help schedule appointments and 8.4 percent to provide physical assistance

Beneficiaries with regular companions were more highly satisfied with their physician's technical skills, information-giving and interpersonal skills. Those whose companions more actively helped with communication rated their physicians' information-giving and interpersonal skills more favorably. This relationship was stronger among patients who reported themselves to be in worse health.