The Power Of A Chair - when providers build relationships

by Dr. Jon Hart

Pull up a chair. Let’s chat.

As Season 2 of BoPC’s podcast keeps reminding us, relationship is a key component to high value health care. Certainly, frequency of visits aids in building a trusting relationship, but we sometimes forget that helping a patient feel cared for plays an even greater role. Proximity, touch, compassion, and empathy all facilitate this feeling. Sitting at eye level, within a few feet of a person shows them you’re engaged and, in turn, engages them.

I was both thrilled and frustrated that we recently got yet another study published on how a physician sitting down in a patient interaction improves the patient experience. Thrilled because, once again, this simple yet important act gets in front of us. Frustrated because the medical literature has supported physician sitting in patient care since at least 2005 (probably longer, but I stopped looking at articles before that year in my search), yet we don’t do it very often.

This most recent study states that placing a chair within 3 feet of a patient’s bed, facing the patient, makes it far more likely for the doc to sit down. Though there was no significant difference in the amount of time spent in the room by the physician, patient experience improved with the sitting docs (not ducks).

January 17, 2024
A Chair’s Location in Hospital Rooms Improved Patient Satisfaction
Emily Harris
JAMA. Published online January 17, 2024. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.27431

True, this article offers the practical advice of how far and what direction to place the chair. Too bad it took us 20 years to finally get an answer to that question.

Here’s something else we know (and has been shown in the medical literature) - improved patient experience leads to improved patient engagement which leads to improved treatment adherence which leads to improved outcomes. Win.

As noted, Relationship keeps coming up as a vital element of all aspects of healthcare as we discuss value-based care on the second season of our Business of Primary Care podcast series has been Relationship. Effective healthcare is best delivered via a relationship between patient and provider. While the appropriate applications of technology enable our delivery of care, we cannot tech our way out of the enduring principle of relationship.

Sitting for conversation has long been a staple of our human relationships. From the front porch to the living room to the exam/hospital room, assuming a position at or below eye level of your fellow conversant instills a sense of trust, compassion, empathy, and caring – key components to a meaningful relationship.

Sitting with a patient is one of those “just-do-it” things. Pull up a chair.