Objective To evaluate the effect of chair placement on length of time physicians sit during a bedside consultation and patients’ satisfaction.
Design Single center, double blind, randomized controlled deception trial.
Setting County hospital in Texas, USA.
Participants 51 hospitalist physicians providing direct care services, and 125 observed encounters of patients who could answer four orientation questions correctly before study entry, April 2022 to February 2023.
Intervention Each patient encounter was randomized to either chair placement (≤3 feet (0.9 m) of patient’s bedside and facing the bed) or usual chair location (control).
Main outcome measures The primary outcome was the binary decision of the physician to sit or not sit at any point during a patient encounter. Secondary outcomes included patient satisfaction, as assessed with the Tool to Assess Inpatient Satisfaction with Care from Hospitalists (TAISCH) and the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers