A partnership-oriented and culturally-sensitive communication style of doctors can impact the health outcomes of patients with chronic illnesses in Indonesia

Objectives: A partnership-oriented communication style is globally recommended for medical practice. A
culturally-sensitive doctor-patient communication guideline is also needed for Southeast Asia. The
‘Greet-Invite-Discuss’ guideline was established and tested with primary care doctors and their patients
in Indonesia.
Methods: In this mixed-methods study, doctors were trained according to the ‘Greet-Invite-Discuss’
guideline, while patients received standard treatment. Two groups of
fifteen doctors were assigned to
have consultations with 45 patients with hypertension or 51 patients with type-2 diabetes mellitus.
Doctors’ self-assessment and patients’ perceptions and their clinical outcomes were longitudinally
measured. Six focus group discussions were conducted to explore doctors’ and patients’ experiences.
Results: Doctors’ self-assessments and patients’ perceptions of doctors’ communication skills increased
significantly (p < 0.05). Moreover, patients’ blood pressure or fasting blood glucose levels decreased
significantly (p < 0.05), except the two-hour blood glucose levels (NS). Qualitatively, doctors
demonstrated more partnership and culturally-sensitive communication, and patients expressed more
satisfaction, increased comprehension and self-management, of their chronic illnesses.
Conclusions: The ‘Greet-Invite-Discuss’ guideline was useful for primary care doctors for a more
partnership-oriented and culturally-sensitive communication with patients in chronic care management.
Practice implications: Using a partnership-oriented and culturally-sensitive communication guideline,
doctors can improve their communication skills with their patients towards optimum health outcomes.