Investigation of physician-patient relationship among tehran university of medical sciences hospitals

Introduction: As a multi-faceted system, the physician-patient relationship is more complicated than a mutual relationship at the turn of the third millennium. This process positively affects the quality of healthcare services provided. This research intends to determine the relationship status of the physicians and the patients in public and private hospitals affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) in year 2015-2016.
Materials & Methods: This was a descriptive-analytical, cross-sectional study conducted on 185 patients who had been selected purposively, being hospitalized in 2public and 2 private hospitals affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS). Patient-Doctor Relationship Questionnaire was employed as the research instrument. In addition to face and content validity, the reliability of the instrument was confirmed via administration of Alpha Cronbach, Test-Retest and Interclass Correlation Coefficient. For data analysis, SPSS software was used, for absolute and relative frequency the descriptive results were employed while Kolmogrov-Smirnov, Pearson, and Anova test were administered for analytical results.
Results: Physician-patient relationships were revealed to be relatively desirable and desirable in studied hospitals, although this showed to be better in private hospitals compared to public hospitals (P=0.017). Also, there was observed a significant relation between physician-patient relationship status with patient’s age (P=0.021), educational background (P=0.02), physician’s gender (P=0.031), and educational level (P=0.017).
Conclusion: The difference between public and private hospitals respecting physician – patient relationship with due attention to less effective of this relationship in public hospitals would be a huge challenges to success of health care evolution plan in Iran. Therefore, providing communication skills training, observation of patients’ rights and medical ethics by the physicians, especially by younger and less experienced physicians as well as medical assistants and medical students is recommended.