Blair Golden, MD, MS, assistant professor, Hospital Medicine, is the lead author on a new study published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine that confirms the benefits of providing dedicated seating for physicians in patient hospital rooms.

Past studies have shown that a doctor sitting next to a patient’s bed, which can promote eye-to-eye interface between both parties, has been associated with perceived improvements in patients' understanding of their conditions as well as that their clinician spending more time with them. However, there is one problem in many hospitals: there are often no spare chairs available in the patient’s room.

Dr. Golden and her collaborators at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore set out to examine whether educating internal medicine residents on the value of sitting and adding a wall-mounted folding chair in plain sight to hospital rooms would motivate use of chairs. The study also measured the impact of whether this physician behavior impacted patient perceptions.

Overall, the presence of a chair seems to have a positive impact on both the time spent with patients and the residents' efforts to ensure patients understand their information.

Read the full story from the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.

Banner: Blair Golden, MD, MS, assistant professor, Hospital Medicine, and lead author on the new study. Credit: Department of Medicine.