A study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health found that 38
percent of Medicare beneficiaries are accompanied to
routine medical visits. These accompanied
beneficiaries tend to be older, sicker and less educated
but more satisfied with their health care
provider compared to unaccompanied patients. The study is
published in the July 14 edition of
Archives of Internal Medicine.
"We found that patients were more satisfied with their
care when visit companions were
actively involved in the communication between patient and
provider," said Jennifer L. Wolff, assistant
professor in the Bloomberg School's
Department of Health Policy and Management. "Our
findings
suggest that visit companions could be an important
resource for vulnerable older adults, a population
that tends to have more chronic conditions and utilizes
more health care services."
Data for the study were gathered from the nationwide
2004 Medicare Current Beneficiary
Survey, which for the first time included information on
beneficiaries' visit companions. The study
included 12,018 Medicare beneficiaries 65 and older living
in the community.
According to the study, visit companions were most
often a spouse (53.9 percent) or adult child
(31.9 percent). Less than 1 percent of beneficiaries were
accompanied by a nurse, nurse's aide or other
professional. More than 60 percent of visit companions
participated in the communication process by
recording the physician's instructions (44.1 percent),
providing information about the patient's medical
needs (41.6 percent), asking questions (41.1 percent) or
explaining the physician's instructions (29.7
percent). The researchers found that accompanied
beneficiaries whose visit companion was more
actively engaged in communication rated their physician's
information-giving and interpersonal skills
more favorably than did unaccompanied beneficiaries. This
relationship was strongest among
beneficiaries who reported having the worst health.
"For physicians, these findings highlight the
potential value of visit companions to assist them in
meeting the informational and interpersonal needs of their
most vulnerable older patients," said Debra
L. Roter, professor in the Bloomberg School's Department of
Health, Behavior and Society.
The study was written by Wolff and Roter. The research
was supported by the Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health.
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