• Mercer SW. The CARE measure. Glasgow: University of Glasgow; 2004. 2 p.

Does not apply to this measure

This measure is used to assess the overall mean Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) score among patients who completed the CARE measure.

Clinical encounters between patients and health care professionals are the core activity of medical care. Increasing attention is being paid to patients' views on care and the consultation, and to developing a more holistic, patient-centered approach. Empathy is considered to be a basic component of all therapeutic relationships and a key factor in patient's definitions of quality of care. Empathy has been demonstrated to enhance the doctor–patient relationship and to improve patient enablement, and patient and doctor satisfaction in clinical encounters.

The Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) Measure has been developed as a process measure of the consultation, based on a broad definition of empathy. Empathy in this clinical context has been described as the ability to communicate an understanding of a patient's world and to act on that understanding in a therapeutic way. The aim of developing the CARE measure is to provide a tool for the evaluation of the quality of consultations in terms of the 'human' aspects of medical care. By basing the measure on process rather than outcome, it provides doctors with direct feedback of their relational empathy, as perceived by their patients. For this reason, it has utility not only in research, but also as a tool for self-audit and has recently been accredited for use in General Practice (GP) appraisal and in Scotland.

General practice; consultation; patient perspective; relational empathy

Total number of patients who completed the Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) Measure

Note: Questionnaires with more than two missing values or 'Not Applicable' responses are removed from the analysis.

Overall mean Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) score

• A formal consensus procedure involving experts in relevant clinical, methodological, and organizational sciences
• One or more research studies published in a National Library of Medicine (NLM) indexed, peer-reviewed journal

Unspecified

Current routine use

Internal quality improvement

Ambulatory Care
Physician Group Practices/Clinics

Physicians

Group Clinical Practices

Unspecified

Either male or female

Unspecified

Unspecified

Unspecified

Unspecified

Unspecified

Unspecified

Getting Better
Living with Illness
Staying Healthy

Patient-centeredness

Users of care only

Patients who completed the Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) Measure

Patients associated with provider

Inclusions
Total number of patients who completed the Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) Measure

Note: Questionnaires with more than two missing values or 'Not Applicable' responses are removed from the analysis.

Exclusions
Unspecified

All cases in the denominator are equally eligible to appear in the numerator

Encounter

Time window is a single point in time

Inclusions
Overall mean Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) score

Exclusions
Unspecified

The measure results are somewhat or substantially under the control of the health care professionals, organizations and/or policymakers to whom the measure applies.

Encounter or point in time

Patient survey

Not Individual Case

Unspecified

Non-weighted Score/Composite/Scale

Better quality is associated with a higher score

Unspecified

External comparison at a point in time
Internal time comparison

The Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) Measure was included in a self-completed questionnaire study involving 3044 patients attending 26 General Practitioners (GPs) in 26 different practices (16 in areas of high socio-economic deprivation and 10 in low deprivation areas, in the west of Scotland).

GPs and patients, in both high and low deprivation settings, endorsed the relevance of the CARE Measure. Overall, 76% of patients rated the measure as being 'very important' to their current consultation. Higher ratings of importance were observed in older patients, patients consulting with psycho-social problems, patients with long-standing illness or disability, and patients with significant emotional distress. Few patients rated individual CARE Measure items as being 'not applicable' to their current consultation; only 3.1% of patients felt that more than 2 of the 10 items in the measure did not apply to their current consultation. Mean values were not influenced by deprivation, gender, reason for consulting, chronic illness, or emotional distress. Correlational analysis indicated that a sample size of 50 patients is sufficient to reliably estimate mean CARE score for an individual GP.

The Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) Measure.

Mercer, Stewart W., BSc, MSc, PhD, MBChB, MRCGP

Unspecified

Unspecified

Unspecified

Measure was not adapted from another source.

2004 Jan

This is the current release of the measure.

• Mercer SW. The CARE measure. Glasgow: University of Glasgow; 2004. 2 p.

This NQMC summary was completed by ECRI Institute on October 23, 2008. The information was verified by the measure developer on December 2, 2008.

No copyright restrictions apply.