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Patient, consumer, client, or customer: what do people want to be called?

Deber RB, Kraetschmer N, Urowitz S, Sharpe N

Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, ON, Canada. raisa.deber@utoronto.ca

OBJECTIVE: To clarify preferred labels for people receiving health care. BACKGROUND: The proper label to describe people receiving care has evoked considerable debate among providers and bio-ethicists, but there is little evidence as to the preferences of the people involved. DESIGN: We analysed dictionary definitions as to the derivation and connotations of such potential labels as: patient, client, customer, consumer, partner and survivor. We then surveyed outpatients from four clinical populations in Ontario, Canada about their feelings about these labels. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: People from breast cancer (n = 202), prostate disease (n = 202) and fracture (n = 202) clinics in an urban Canadian teaching hospital (Sharpe study), and people with HIV/AIDS at 10 specialty care clinics and three primary care practices affiliated with the HIV Ontario Observational Database (n = 431). VARIABLES AND OUTCOME MEASURES: The survey instruments included questions about opinion of label, role in treatment decision-making (the Problem Solving Decision Making scale), trust, use of information and health status. RESULTS: Our respondents moderately liked the label 'patient'. The other alternatives evoked moderate to strong dislike. CONCLUSIONS: Many alternatives to 'patient' incorporate assumptions (e.g. a market relationship) which care recipients may also find objectionable. People who are receiving care find the label 'patient' much less objectionable than the alternatives that have been suggested.

Published 3 November 2005 in Health Expect, 8(4): 345-51.
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