The Impact of Emergency Physician Empathy on Litigation Propensity

Empathy

Empathy, Communication, Physician litigation

The purpose of this study is to observe whether people would report being less likely to sue a physician who shows more empathy when giving a patient potentially bad news regarding their medical condition.

The investigators hypothesized that patients will have less propensity to sue emergency physicians after a poor outcome if the physician demonstrated empathy by verbalizing that they recognize the patient is concerned about their symptoms, and that the patient knows their typical state of health better than a physician seeing them for the first time. Accordingly, the investigators will assess whether the presence or absence of emergency physician empathetic statements in videotaped simulated encounters will alter patient propensity towards litigation. Secondary objectives are to assess whether the presence or absence of empathetic statements alters patient perceptions of discharge instruction clarity, physician expertness, physician caring, and physician desirability.

None listed

United States