Results
We identified seven themes concerning reasons for disagreement regarding illnesses between patients and GPs, namely: problems with communication and cooperation between health care professionals, disease management by the GP and the patient, the documentation behaviour of the GP, communication challenges between GP and patient, differences in the understanding of a disease between GP and patient, the prioritization and rating of diseases by GP and patient and obliviousness, repression and avoidance by the patient. Most categories were reported by both perspectives: GP and patient. Themes, categories and perspectives are summarized in Table
4.
Table 4
Themes and categories of reasons for disagreement regarding illnesses between older patients with multimorbidity and their GPs
| Category | GP | Patient |
1
| Problems with communication and cooperation between health care professionals | | |
| The hospital communicates many diagnoses that the general practitioner considered incorrect or exaggerated | × | × |
| The specialist explains his findings too little and / or responds insufficiently towards the patient | × | × |
| The GP is not/ or inadequately informed by the specialists, e.g. because no medical report is transferred | × | × |
| The GP is not involved in the treatment by the specialist | × | × |
| The patient reluctantly reports being treated by an alternative practitioner | × | |
2
| Disease management by GP and patient | | |
| The GP’s and patient’s understanding of a disease agree more in diagnoses requiring regular disease management | × | × |
| The GP’s diagnostic process is more difficult, if the examination of the patient is uncomfortable for the GP or he/she does not feel responsible | × | × |
| The complexity of a single or multiple diseases complicates the GP’s diagnostic process and the clinical management, as seen for example in multimorbidity | × | × |
| In patients who take own initiatives, there is a greater consistency in disease understanding between GP and patient | | × |
3
| Documentation behaviour of the GP | | |
| The pressure from health insurances to encode certain diseases, affects the documentation behaviour of the GP | × | |
| Whether a disease is diagnosed by the GP or not, depends on the disease stage and measured values | × | × |
| Not all symptoms are documented by the GP as diseases | × | × |
| The GP has little knowledge about diseases that are lie far in the patients’ pasts | × | × |
| Errors in the patient record cannot be corrected subsequently, e.g. in the hospitals’ or GPs’ records | × | × |
4
| Communication challenges between GP and patient | | |
| There is too little time to discuss complaints and diseases to achieve a mutual understanding | × | × |
| The GPs’ medical understanding of illnesses must be translated into the patients’ level of understanding and vice versa | × | × |
| The consultation can be exhausting and this may cause something to be forgotten or missed | × | |
| The exchange of information and disease management are dependent on the doctor-patient relationship and the mutual trust | × | × |
| Agreement on understanding a disease is worse in patients who are difficult to lead and / or functionally impaired | × | |
5
| Differences in the understanding of a disease between GP and patient | | |
| Information that is given by specialists and / or elaborate diagnostics are formative for the patient | × | |
| The patients’ clinical pictures are influenced by the media and campaigns | × | × |
| The GPs’ medical understanding of an illness deviates from the patients’ everyday understanding | × | × |
6
| Prioritization and rating of diseases by GP and patient | | |
| The GP prioritizes diseases that affect the prognosis of the patient | × | |
| The patient prioritizes diseases associated with complaints | × | |
| Diseases that are not relevant for the patient from a general practitioner's point of view are not communicated to the patient | × | |
| Diseases that are not relevant for the GP, from a patient’s perspective, are not communicated to the GP | × | × |
7
| Obliviousness, repression and avoidance by the patient | | |
| The patient does not remember diseases if they are too far in the past | × | × |
| Diseases are repressed by the patient, e.g. cancer | × | × |
| The patient conceals embarrassing diseases | × | × |
| The patient tries to avoid the utilization of health services | × | × |
Theme 1: Problems with communication and cooperation between health care professionals
Both GPs and patients reported cooperation and communication problems with other health services. Missing or incorrect information exchange between hospitals, specialists, other health services and GPs made the doctor-patient communication difficult and influenced the patients’ disease awareness.
The hospital communicates many diagnoses that the general practitioner considered incorrect or exaggerated. GPs received incorrect diagnoses from hospital reports, particularly secondary diagnoses were inflated possibly due to financial incentives for overdiagnosing in the German DRG-system (diagnosis related groups) or inaccurate quality management in the hospitals. “Dehydrated patients are admitted to hospital, they have a bad creatinine [level], and then they have a renal insufficiency [according to the coding of the hospital] and then it shows up in a report and then it is copied from one report to the other, and the text block remains unchanged at the hospital and is added again at the next hospital stay and is not becoming any more real…” (GP12)
The specialist explains his findings too little and/or responds insufficiently towards the patient. Patients and GPs reported that the specialists often spoke little to not at all about the results of their examinations. Time constraint in specialists’ practices was mentioned as a reason for this phenomenon. Therefore, the patients had to go to their GP to discuss the results. “Again and again patients [turn] up […] telling us that they would like us to explain their diagnoses because they are not explained thoroughly elsewhere […]. But I am also quite sure that some [patients] do not do that. They still don’t know what they are suffering from afterwards but they don’t ask us either.” (GP11)
The GP is not/ or inadequately informed by the specialists, e.g. because no medical report is transferred. Some specialists rarely, if at all, wrote medical reports and sent them to the GPs. Patients procured their medical reports. Sometimes specialists refused the GP’s referral from the patients to avoid the then mandatory reporting. “Also, patients tell me that specialist colleagues sometimes do not want to have their referral.” (GP12) “Certainly, because they are required to mandatory reporting, that’s for sure.” (GP13) “Which means […] they are [not] accepting the […] referral. Certainly, this is […] a problem.” (GP12)
The GP is not involved in the treatment by the specialist. If patients contacted a specialist without former appointment with the GP and without a referral, the specialists would not inform the GP. “[In] orthopaedics […] [it] works particularly poorly […] This is where they […] enter into therapy contracts […] with patients, which […] circumvent or run parallel to the general practitioner’s, of which there is no documentation at all because they often are services which have to be paid for privately.” (GP13)
The patient reluctantly reports being treated by an alternative practitioner. GPs rated the treatment by an alternative practitioner as a sensitive topic because it is a separate treatment with a competitive character. “They get diagnoses from natural health professionals but they don’t tell you anything about it […]. This is often a parallel world we don’t know anything about […]. You are surprised sometimes what they have standing around at home.” (GP13)
Theme 2: Disease management by GP and patient
There was a variety of factors related to disease management, which could influence the (dis-)agreement regarding illnesses between GPs and patients.
The GP’s and patient’s understanding of a disease agree more in diagnoses requiring regular disease management. Diseases from disease management programs (DMPs), diseases bearing a high risk of death, measurable diseases e.g. through laboratory parameters, and diagnoses requiring many medications and/or a lot of regular consultations were subject to a better agreement between GPs’ and patients’ understanding of disease. “The high rate of conformities are indeed the diseases which bind the patients to us quite regularly. No matter whether DMP or […] thyroid diseases, they come for a regular metabolic monitoring, which is […] taken incredibly serious […] by the patients.” (GP7)
The GP’s diagnostic process is more difficult if the examination of the patient is uncomfortable for the GP or he/she does not feel responsible. Patients and GPs mentioned medical areas for which the family doctor seemed to not be responsible or which the family doctor did not consider pleasant. “[I] believe physicians are not as keen on performing a rectal examination as on just quickly […] auscultating the heart.” (GP3) “Haemorrhoids are last on the list, this is something [the physician] is also not really fond of looking at.“(P11)
The complexity of a single or multiple diseases complicates the GP’s diagnostic process and the clinical management, as seen, for example, in multimorbidity. Patients told tales of very long diagnostic processes, often with detours. GPs emphasized the complexity of the disease management in patients with multimorbidity. “The really multimorbid patient, well, the one with a multitude of diagnoses, this is where something easily slips through your fingers so that you don’t examine and treat everything […] with the same attention. Well now, this is surely more often the case with me, that I overlook something altogether.” (GP14)
In patients who take own initiatives, there is a greater consistency in disease understanding between GP and patient. This reason for better agreement was only revealed in the patient focus groups. If patients demanded treatment and actively asked the GP and other doctors or informed themselves, the understanding of the illness would overlap more and the disease management would be more successful.”I’ve learnt from experience that, if I do not write everything on a large sheet of paper, and do not go over it exactly point by point, something will often go amiss at the general practitioner’s. Well, he asks a lot and does a lot, and for me he is an incredibly fantastic general practitioner, but you have to be a little bit on the lookout.” (P10)
Theme 3: Documentation behaviour of the GP
The documentation behaviour of the GP was an important factor regarding the concordance between GP and patient. It was influenced by several different aspects.
The pressure from health insurances to encode certain diseases, affects the documentation behaviour of the GP. GPs reported that health insurances occasionally made proposals for encoding certain diseases, in order to get more funds from the morbidity-oriented risk adjustment scheme within the statutory health insurance system in Germany. For this reason a lot of ICD codes were assigned by GPs which were not in line with patients’ awareness of their diseases.”We have to say loud and clear that we have also been under a lot of pressure by part of our self-management since […] two, three years, that we are supposed to encode a lot, because then there is more money.” (GP13)
Whether a disease is diagnosed by the GP or not, depends on the disease stage and measured values. The GPs assigned a diagnosis due to very low increases in certain values (e.g. renal insufficiency by slightly increased creatinine values) in order to monitor these but did not always tell the patient about the diagnosis. “These stages 1 and 2 most certainly [fall] under renal insufficiency […], those who have a crea below 2, that is something that the patient does not […] consider to be […] renal insufficiency, he/she would say: “Yes, the kidney values are not completely normal.” However, he/she doesn’t consider this to be a disease.” (GP8)
Not all symptoms are documented by the GP as diseases. Some symptoms were not classified as diseases by the GP, e.g. dizziness, especially when the symptoms were not life-threatening. For the patients these symptoms could have been very relevant. “And only those are diagnosed with vertigo who are really severely afflicted with it and really complain a lot […]. The rest I simply brush off.” (GP11)
The GP has little knowledge about diseases that lie far in the patients’ pasts. Very old diseases were not documented in the GPs’ medical records and the collecting of medical results was rated as very tedious by the GPs. “Regarding the […] kidney stones I can certainly imagine that someone once had a renal colic and that he/she remembers it for the rest of his/her life, and it happened 20 years ago, which you, as general practitioner, have already forgotten.” (GP2)
Errors in the patient records cannot be corrected subsequently, e.g. in the hospitals’ or GPs’ records. This reason was reported by GPs and patients. One patient reported that a mistake, made in his medical records during a hospital stay, could not be corrected anymore and he criticized the credulity of written medical reports: “Some scatterbrain once wrote in my bulky medical records, which […] comprise several folders, that I had two stents and […] a bypass. […] And, to boot, there are physicians who, unfortunately, are reading it thoroughly and tell you afterwards: “Now, we will have to check the condition of your stents.” And when I reply: “I haven’t got any.” They say: “But that’s what’s written in your medical record report.” (P1)
Theme 4: Communication challenges between GP and patient
We found five categories on the subject communication challenges. Main problems were: not enough time for conversations, a different understanding of illness, complicated or functionally impaired patients and a lack of mutual trust.
There is too little time to discuss complaints and diseases to achieve a mutual understanding. GPs explained that they need a lot of time to talk about the complaints and/or diseases with their patients until they feel that their patients are well informed. Sometimes GPs needed a lot of time to understand the patients. In any case, there was not enough time for detailed conversations due to full waiting rooms. Therefore, patients reported that their GP was too fast. Some patients did not take the time because they thought the GP had no time. GPs mentioned that they had no time to ask. “Inquiring […] is one thing, the other is this saying: “Whoever asks gets answers.” And the time […] to have the patient come in once again […], this is when I always notice that I do not want that at all. We have worked through 2 or 3 issues, the waiting area is jam-packed and, actually, I really don’t have [time] anymore, or I am glad when the patient is […] leaving and the next one comes in […] Although I know that I might do him injustice or there is still something, I am really not prepared to do so any longer.” (GP3)
The GPs’ medical understanding of illnesses must be translated into the patients’ level of understanding and vice versa. GPs rated the mediator function as one of their most common functions. Patients mentioned that they did not always understand the physicians’ technical terms and / or that they had the feeling that the GP was concealing some information.” The question of what the patient understands to be a certain disease and what I understand to be a certain disease. And what consequences should follow from these things […] This middleman function […] between the scientific medical concepts and the every-day communication experience. This is what we do very, very often.” (GP8)
The consultation can be exhausting and this may cause something to be forgotten or missed. GPs saw the consultation as a strenuous conversation for the patients. Patients could not register everything told to them by their physician at once. And patients did not always directly mention everything. Many concerns would be mentioned at the end of the consultation. Some patients were very demanding so that the GP missed something. “And then, of course, there are these annoying patients where you think: “Oh no, not again, she always gets here at quarter past 12 and settles down comfortably and then I open the conversation with the question: “What can I do for you today?” and not with: “How are you?” because it is a question I dare not risk to ask at all […] because it would mean an extra half an hour whereas I simply try to restrain patients […] and thus it certainly also happens that I […] miss and overlook things.” (GP11)
The exchange of information and disease management are dependent on the doctor-patient relationship and the mutual trust. A long relationship between the GP and the patient encouraged disease management. The agreement between the GP and the patient was estimated to be better when the patients had a GP that suited them and with whom they felt satisfied. “I suppose you have to trust. Well, I feel whether he does me good, that he responds to my problem, anyway, that I am not just a number but that he sees me as a person.” (P17)
Agreement on understanding a disease is worse in patients who are difficult to lead and/or functionally impaired. GPs had the feeling that patients’ concepts of illness were often resistant to change and noticed a lack of insight by patients regarding their illnesses. They also reported that patients often do not communicate openly and that functional impairments, e.g. dementia or hearing loss made communication more difficult.” The hard of hearing […] nod [often] and say yes […]. That they do not want to admit that they don’t understand everything, and consequently a lot of information is lost, and even if you already know it, you are speaking slowly, but sometimes you forget to do so when you are in a hurry, and I believe that they really have a higher risk because the communication is muddled.” (GP11)
Theme 5: Differences in the understanding of a disease between GP and patient
We identified a few reasons which caused differences in the understanding of diseases between GPs and their patients. Patients were influenced by information from specialists, media or campaigns and hold onto their understanding of the illness.
Information that is given by specialists and / or elaborate diagnostics are formative for the patient. GPs reported that patients were very susceptible to diagnoses which are justified by extensive diagnostics and to exaggerated instructions by specialists. This could lead to misunderstandings. “It is often the case that patients […] say: “I’ve had a stroke,” and when I look at their file, I simply cannot find this stroke anywhere. In the end, it turns out that the patient had been admitted to hospital with certain symptoms at some time or another […] and they said: “Yes, it might have been a TIA,” however, this was passed on to the patient at the hospital as: “You had a minor stroke”. He is sent back home after three days supplied with ASS and I am looking at the whole thing and say […] you can look at it this way, if you like, but you don’t have to look at it […] this way.” (GP8)
The patients’ clinical pictures are influenced by the media and campaigns. Patients informed themselves through the press, television or internet. Fashionable diseases were often remembered. “An incredibly triggered interest emerged in the population whether they’ve got osteoporosis or not. […] An unbelievable hype was created with this vitamin D and what not. Indeed I believe that, for this reason, everyone [will] […] inquire whether he/she has osteoporosis, and everyone is already inquiring after their cholesterol, no matter how healthy they are, marathon runners and non-smokers and what not, but they all want to know their cholesterol level.” (GP7)
The GPs’ medical understanding of an illness deviates from the patients’ everyday understanding. Most patients had an everyday understanding of illnesses which can cause misunderstandings. Patients had colloquial definitions of diseases e.g. rheumatoid arthritis vs. joint arthrosis. GPs reported that patients often had no understanding for the chronicity of an illness, which hindered the treatment of chronic diseases such as high blood pressure. GPs also recounted that patients thought that the disease had to be found where the symptoms were located: “[The patient] suffered […] a new occurrence of atrial fibrillation with quite severe shortness of breath, he was extremely short-winded and I wanted to tell him that he should see a cardiologist now because I wanted to rhythmise him or I simply wanted to admit him to hospital, he was simply doing too poorly. […] “What am I supposed to do at the cardiology clinic,” he absolutely could not understand why and to explain it to him now that his heart was practically causing a congestion of fluids in his lungs and that his heart was the real cause of it, while he insisted again and again to see his pulmonologist […] He was very enthusiastic afterwards because he was [had been] admitted to the cardiology clinic.” (GP10)
Theme 6: Prioritization and rating of diseases by GP and patient
Patients and GPs reported a different prioritization of diseases. In some cases GPs and patients did not inform each other about diseases which were, from their point of view, unimportant.
The GP prioritizes diseases that affect the prognosis of the patient. GPs reported that patients seemed unaware of some diseases which were important to the GP e.g. renal insufficiency, anaemia, hyperuricemia, pre-diabetes, high blood pressure (asymptomatic) or lipid metabolism disorders.” There are diagnoses which are objectively dangerous for patients because they shorten their life expectancy, and it is exactly this we usually tinker with and put our efforts in. And the others are diagnoses which have negative effects on the patients’ quality of life, they are, however, also important issues, and it is precisely those which are often dealt with inadequately. I mean urinary and stool incontinence, […], which don’t shorten lives but…” (GP4) GPs rated diseases that cause only discomfort, but do not affect the prognosis, as not very important. “And it is the issues of mental wellbeing, back ache, migraine where we could also say, well, if we had a huge amount of time, we could take care of all health issues, but we haven’t got any and therefore have to focus a bit.” (GP13)
The patient prioritizes diseases associated with complaints. GPs suspected that their patients were more aware of diseases with dominant complaints and rated them as more important, whereas GPs could forget them: “It is precisely […] this vertigo, at the moment I have one too, […] I talk [to her] for a quarter of an hour about this and that every time after which she replies, “but my vertigo,” and I answer every time, well, unfortunately there is nothing I can do about it, we have already tried and done everything. But it is probably the first diagnosis she will mention: “What are you suffering from?”. “Vertigo”. For me, this would be somewhere all the way at the bottom, it might well be that I block it out as well.” (GP15)
Diseases that are not relevant for the patient from a general practitioner's point of view are not communicated to the patient. The GPs mentioned that they concealed diseases without consequences for the treatment or diseases that would only worry the patient e.g. low grade renal insufficiency or hyperuricemia. These diseases appeared only in the medical records. “I suppose valvular heart disease is a documentation problem. She had been for a echocardiography once, somehow a first to second degree or first degree insufficiency occurs and is added to the diagnoses […] This doesn’t have to be of interest for the patient either.” (GP13)
Diseases that are not relevant for the GP, from a patient's perspective, are not communicated to the GP. Complaints, that the patient treated himself or that went away by themselves, were not told to the GP. “Sometimes, you have to be your own physician. Well, I don’t go there for every poppycock, when I have a headache or so.” (P19)
Theme 7: Obliviousness, repression and avoidance by the patient
There were several different reasons why patients forgot, repressed or avoided diseases, which were documented in the GP’s records.
The patient does not remember diseases if they are too far in the past. Patients forgot about old diseases documented in their medical records. “I think the reason might also be that the diseases or symptoms occurred quite some time ago, so that you yourself are not thinking of them anymore, but as the general practitioner has got it all on his file.” (P5)
Diseases are repressed by the patient, e.g. cancer. GPs reported that some patients hid complaints because they were afraid of malignant conditions or the patients did not admit certain diseases. “The classic: “Diabetes? I certainly haven’t got diabetes.” This doesn’t happen daily, but [the] diagnosis is documented by blood sugar levels. […] “Well, you once mentioned something like minor adult-onset diabetes, but diabetes? Me?” This is one example, or when you find out somehow through twisted channels that they have discontinued the medication after all.” (GP11)
The patient conceals embarassing diseases. Some patients reported that talking about embarrassing diseases with their GP was difficult. Others were afraid of diagnosis, relapses, side effects or surgery. “I could imagine, particularly regarding haemorrhoids, this is certainly the kind of subject, well, you don’t talk about it with anybody at all, and not even with your general practitioner. Well, I suffered from it for a long time until I went to have surgery. But you know, these are topics you really don’t like to approach.” (P13)
The patient tries to avoid the utilization of health services. GPs suggested that some patients were afraid of family members not being cared for if, for example, they had to go to the hospital. Some patients avoided referrals to specialists, which is why they hid their complaints. “A female physician who thought, after a 24-h test, that my blood pressure was too high and I therefore had to take medication. “Oh,” I say, “always?” “Yes, always.” Well, and now we have postponed it for the time being, this was in the spring, but now I don’t dare to return there at all […]. Because I believe, it changes with the […] blood pressure. And next, the other thing would be […] I should have a colonoscopy. […] I know that something might happen during it and therefore I am still also a little bit apprehensive about it.” (P12)