87European Journal of General Medicine Difficult Patients or Difficult Doctors: An Analysis of Problematic Consultations

Aim: All physicians must care for some patients who are perceived as difficult because of behavioral or emotional aspects that af-fect their care. Reasons may be delivered from patient, physi-cian, or health care system. To identify reasons behind perceiving some patients as “difficult ” from a family doctor’s point of view; propose solutions for dealing with, and ultimately accepting and understanding them. Method: Cross sectional descriptive study. Participants: Data was collected from seventy board-certified family doctors currently working in primary care services. A structured questionnaire with answers scored on a 2 point scale (agree/disagree) was used to assess the perception of difficult patients. Twenty questions were related to patients, 8 were related to doctors, and 8 were related to administrative system