Patient-physician shared experiences and value patients place on continuity of care.

PURPOSE: We undertook a study to examine the impact of experiences shared between patient and physician and the value patients place on continuity of care.
METHODS: Data on 4,454 patients collected in The Direct Observation of Primary Care (DOPC) study conducted between October 1994 and August 1995 were analyzed to assess the value patients place on continuity, length of patient-physician relationship, and experiences shared between patient and physician.
RESULTS: A significant interaction was yielded between duration of relationship and experiences shared between patient and physician (P = .03). For all lengths of relationship with the physician, the value that patients have for continuity increased when patients indicated experiences shared with the physician. For patients who did not report experiences shared with the physician, the longer the relationship, the greater the value placed on continuity.
CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study point to the importance of the experiences shared between patients and physicians and the value that patients place on continuity with their regular physician.