Skip to main content.

Pull up a chair: Study shows a room design impacts patient-doctor communication

Patients visiting the new offices of one of three clinics affiliated with the KU School of Medicine-Wichita will find themselves in less-than-traditional consultation rooms.

Patients visiting the new offices of one of three clinics affiliated with the KU School of Medicine-Wichita will find themselves in less-than-traditional consultation rooms.

Gone are the paper-covered exam tables in at least three-fourths of the rooms for the endocrinology clinic at 8533 E. 32nd St. N. Instead patients will be asked to pull up a chair, alongside their doctor, at a pedestal table.

The new layout is in response to recent research completed by KU School of Medicine-Wichita within the departments of internal medicine and preventive medicine and public health.

The 2013 study found that reconfiguring an exam room can make a big difference in improving how patients feel about the interaction and the communication between themselves and their doctors.

While the study didn't address patient outcomes, other research shows that effective doctor-patient communication is a central factor in providing high-quality health care.

Today's patients have gotten used to seeing physicians and nurses use an electronic device to chart their diagnosis and treatment in an electronic medical record, the digital version that replaced the paper charts of yesteryear.

"There has been a lot of research about how electronic medical records change the way the doctor and patient communicate," says Dr. Justin Moore, assistant professor and division chief of KU Wichita Endocrinology.

Patients find it can be difficult to communicate with a provider, who can seem more focused on the digital screen than on connecting with them personally.

For the study, an exam room at the internal medicine residency clinic was reconfigured, replacing the exam table with a pedestal table and four chairs - "like you would find in a restaurant," explains Moore, a member of the research team.

Over the next two weeks, about 20 residents using laptops saw 26 patients in the reconfigured room, and 33 patients in a traditional "control" exam room, explains Frank Dong, research assistant professor and director of Master of Science in Clinical Research. Dong and recent MSCR recipient Folaranmi Ajiboye were the lead researchers.

Following the visits, patients were asked questions about how they felt about their interactions with the residents.

While room setup made no impact on their level of trust, the patients in the redesigned room indicated a higher level of engagement in communicating with the residents. Being able to sit side-by-side with the doctor so that the patient could see and talk about the data on the computer screen seemed to enhance the interaction, according to Dong and Moore.

"They liked the environment better and liked having access to their own medical information," Moore says.

An article on the study, "Effects of revised consultation room design on patient-physician communication," has been accepted for publication in the journal Health Environments Research & Design. In addition to Dong, Ajiboye and Moore, the study's co-authors include Dr. K. James Kallail, associate chair of research, and Dr. Allison Baughman, an internal medicine resident.

The research team will also present its findings at the Kansas chapter meeting of the American College of Physicians in Kansas City, Missouri, in October.

 

 


KU School of Medicine-Wichita