Listening to parents.

Abstract

In Reply.— In our article entitled Are Poor Families Satisfied With the Medical Care Their Children Receive? we found that poor patients had a less satisfying experience communicating with the physician during a visit for their child. We suggested five potential barriers to communication between the patient (parent) and physician that may be more common when seeing poor patients (eg, inadequate reimbursement leading to less time, culture and language differences, practice setting limitations, etc). Unfortunately, in our non-system of care for the poor these barriers are commonly encountered by the physician and patient, making good communication much more difficult.