New research suggests that a respectful and formal approach is the most effective at ensuring a fast response when approaching a doctor for treatment.
According to researchers at Columbia University in the United States, how a patient writes a message online likely influences if a doctor responds and how quickly.
Messages opening with “Dear Dr” are the most likely to elicit a prompt reply – a finding that suggests medical necessity or urgency is not always the first consideration in determining how quickly a patient hears back.
“Writing style – including factors such as length, formality, sentiment and how a message opened – accounted for nearly half of those differences,” the team said, in a paper published by the American Medical Association’s JAMA Network Open journal.
The study, carried out at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia, was based on data for around half a million patients who sought treatment through web portals where a request gets submitted to a doctor.
But in most cases, the outreach attempts were first triaged, with a nurse or other healthcare worker screening before a doctor took a look.
“In many message triage systems, nurses and medical assistants must quickly assess messages and make judgments about their urgency, complexity and need for escalation,” said study lead author and assistant professor of health policy and management Dr Mitchell Tang.
“Given those constraints, writing style may understandably influence how messages are perceived and prioritised,” he said, adding that the findings point to potential biases in how quickly queries are responded to.
Black patients were found to have a 3.7-percentage-point lower response rate from “the intended clinician”, compared to white patients.
He noted that using a salutation such as “dear” tended to generate a quicker response and said the findings are a reminder that “communication style can influence the way we perceive and respond to people – not only in healthcare, but in our everyday lives”. – dpa
ALSO READ: Here's why you should avoid an operation on your surgeon's birthday
