Patient-Centeredness during In-Depth Consultation in the Outpatient Clinic of a Tertiary Hospital in Korea: Paradigm Shift from Disease to Patient

Sohn, Kyoung-Hee; Nam, Sarah; Joo, Jungmin; Kwon, Yong Jin; Yim, Jae-Joon

The average consultation time per person at general hospitals in Korea is between 6.2 to 7.4 minutes. 2 In contrast, while the average consultation time per person varied substantially across hospitals in the United States, it was more than 20 minutes, with only 6% of the physicians spending less than 9 minutes with patients. 3 As the volume of patients in primary care rises, the quality of care declines. 4 Accordingly, the United States has adopted a performance-based pay system to increase consultation time, and thus, quality of care. 5 We speculate that the insufficient consultation time in Korea is due to high demands on physicians' time, where they may have to treat 20-60 patients (sometimes more than 100 patients) in a single session. In Korea, short consultation time in tertiary hospitals is attributed to 1) low reimbursement rate and the fee-for-service system, 2) patients' preference for a tertiary hospital, and 3) lack of gate-keeping or a referral system.