OBJECTIVE: This study aims to describe the patients' and caregivers' experience with the care provided to them by the residents at the UP-PGH Emergency Room Complex (ERC).
METHODOLOGY: The study was a cross-sectional survey using a self-report questionnaire. Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were conducted to document experiences of patients. The outputs of these FGDs were formulated into questions that explored whether problems existed in several identified aspects of health care. The questionnaires were administered among patients and caregivers at the PGH-ER. Frequency distribution of the responses was determined and the 95% confidence interval was calculated to test the validity of the results.
RESULTS: Forty one respondents answered the survey questions. The top 5 items perceived to be a problem were the following: 1) alleviation of anxiety; 2) physician accessibility; 3) reassurance by physician; 4) communicating the impression that maximum effort was being exerted; and 5) explanation of possible complications of treatment. Most of these experiences pertained to the domain of communicating empathy. The items pertaining to technical competence of the physician and communication of medical information ranked lower and seemed to be less of a problem. Aside from this there was also a lack of explanation of potential complications of treatments.
CONCLUSION: The study showed that respondents considered communication of empathy to patients and caregivers as the most significant problem. The study also revealed that residents of the UP-PGH ERC gave more importance to the communication of empathy compared to communication of medical information.