An article brief from the Annals of Family Medicine examines a study that focused on the connection between physician communication practices and antibiotic prescribing during pediatric visits.
When pediatric clinicians suggest actions parents can take to reduce their child’s symptoms (positive treatment recommendations) and offer explanations of the inappropriateness of antibiotics for their child’s infection (negative treatment recommendations), they are less likely to prescribe antibiotics and still maintain a positive care experience for patients. Analyzing surveys from patients and physicians after pediatric visits for acute respiratory tract infection symptoms, researchers found that providing positive treatment recommendations was associated with decreased risk of antibiotic prescribing whether done alone or in combination with negative treatment recommendations. Parents receiving combined positive and negative treatment recommendations were more likely to give the highest possible visit rating.
