Parent expectations for antibiotics, physician-parent communication, and satisfaction

Objectives: To explore how parents communicate their preferences for antibiotics to their child's physician and to examine whether physicians can communicate why antibiotics are not being prescribed in a way that maintains satisfaction with the visit. Design: Previsit survey of parents, audiotaping of the study encounters, and a postvisit survey of parents and physicians. Setting: Two private pediatric practices. Participants: Ten physicians (response rate=77%) and a consecutive sample of 295 eligible parents (response rate=86%) who attended acute care visits for their children between October 1996 and March 1997. Main Outcome Measures: Physician-perceived pressure to prescribe antibiotics and parental visit-specific satisfaction. Results: Fifty percent of parents expressed a previsit expectation for antibiotics; Among these parents, only 1% made a direct verbal request for them. Even when no direct requests for antibiotics were made, physicians still perceived an expectation for antibiotics 34% of the time. Among parents who did not receive expected antibiotics, those offered a contingency plan from the physician (ie, the possibility of receiving antibiotics in the future if their child did not get better) had a higher mean satisfaction score than parents not receiving a contingency plan (76 vs 58.9; P<.05). Conclusion: Physicians should consider providing a contingency plan to parents who expect antibiotics for their children when there is no clinical indication. Further study is needed to determine how parents indirectly communicate their desire for antibiotics and what additional communication techniques physicians can use to resist the overprescribing of antibiotics.