Measuring patients' expectations and requests

Patients seeking help for symptoms frequently worry about the underlying ca uses of their symptoms; have specific expectations for care; and request (o r demand) time, information, and services. Understanding patients' concerns , expectations, and requests is important for clinicians, health care polic ymakers, and researchers. One obstacle to progress in this area has been di sagreement over the most appropriate methods for identifying, monitoring, a nd classifying these phenomena. This article reviews the conceptual relatio nships linking patients' expectations, requests, and satisfaction with care ; surveys contemporary approaches to the measurement of expectations and re quests; and highlights recent empirical findings. The literature reviewed s upports the conclusion that patients' expectations are wide ranging, can be measured, and have potentially important clinical consequences. For clinic ians and policymakers alike, learning to elicit, evaluate, and understand p atients' expectations will be a major task for the early part of the new ce ntury.