ABSTRACT
Doctor-patient communication is a vital component of both patient health and physicians’ professional lives. The quality of doctor-patient relationships can infl uence a number of factors (for reviews, see Roter & Hall, 1993; Stewart, 1995; Street, 2001; also see Haskard, Williams, & DiMatteo, this volume), including health outcomes (Kaplan, Greenfi eld, & Ware, 1989), patient adherence to medical treatment (DiMatteo, 1994), decisions to pursue malpractice litigation (Beckman, Markakis, Suchman, & Frankel, 1994; Levinson, Roter, Mullooly, Dull, & Frankel, 1997), pre-and-post-visit trust (Gallagher & Levinson, 2004), patient satisfaction (Stewart, 1995), and physician satisfaction (Gallagher & Levinson, 2004). An overlooked component of this relationship, however, is the organizational context in which these interactions occur. Hence, this chapter examines the question: In what way do health care organizations affect the process and outcomes of communication in medical consultations?
