Here's more, this time from Respectful Insolence, on the lack of evidence that patient satisfaction is the best measure for health care, since the most satisfied patients do not necessarily have the best health outcomes.
Sadly, it appears that getting what we want, medically (tests, specific drugs), is not always the best thing for us.
Hm. It feels like a touchy subject, because nobody wants "just shut up and do as your doctor tells you" to be the right answer. Especially not medical librarians with our "here, let me show you how to locate reputable consumer health information, which will be totally the coolest thing you'll do all day!"
I think that the problem is partly the concern about that attitude, which of course ideally would not be the presentation at all. If it's more like "here's what I think is the best approach for your situation, and here's why," then it's less of an issue to take the advice of an expert.
But then we have all the problems with physicians not having time to actually talk to people and explain what they think is the best approach and why, so you probably do get patient-dissatisfying dismissals of concerns or requests for test that may be entirely worth dismissing, but the approach is just wrong...
Like so many things in life, it's really a lot about interpersonal dynamics, isn't it?
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