Pediatrician's Communication skills: essential or complimentary? Mind the gap

OBJECTIVES: To provide empirical evidence and discuss the importance of Communication in everyday Pediatric practice through investigating the process by which parents select their children's pediatricians. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A close-ended questionnaire has been administered to 500 parents in a EU country with a 95% response rate due to nature of the collection process (477 completed questionnaires) as the pediatrician was involved in the collection process. RESULTS: Our empirical results demonstrate that the parentsÕ selection priorities involve primarily the pediatriciansÕ communication skills, followed by their accessibility and much less other factors such as experience. More specifically, accessibility over the phone and ability to explain the course and treatment of the illness constitute significant priorities for the parents. CONCLUSIONS: Our study offers insight in the initial steps of obtaining child health care services, a relatively unexplored area of patient decision making and highlight the importance of communication skills and accessibility. Especially the triplet Listen Explain Persuade was found to be of paramount importance. Furthermore, we offer a Human Resources perspective, through a discussion of the implications of our findings on how private childcare clinics should recruit their specialists, as well as how they should train their specialists