The Value of the Therapeutic Relationship Between Patient and Health Care Professional

What is the nature of the relationship that a patient has with a health care provider and does it play a role the health and wellness of individual patients?

The answer depends on the nature of the patients’ visit and the focus or specialty of the health care professional. For psychotherapists, the therapeutic relationship is the core clinical tool and very little progress will be made if it doesn’t exist. On the other end of the spectrum are technical specialist such as anesthesiologists, pathologist, and radiologists who work behind the scenes and have very little interaction with patients. However, for these specialists, a patient assumes the level of the practitioner’s competence has been reviewed and approved through licensing and credentialing processes by hospitals or state boards. In other words, these specialists have been sanctioned by authoritative sources carryout their fiduciary responsibilities.

In between the two extremes, are primary care providers and a wide variety of medical and surgical specialists. The major difference along this continuum is the on-going relationship with PCPs and some medical specialists (e.g., cardiologists) verses the episodic relationship with most surgical specialists and some medical specialists (e.g., dermatologists). I believe that that greater frequency of contact that a patient has with a provider, as well as the comfort of knowing who to call when urgent needs arise, drives the value and impact of the therapeutic relationship (VITR). A high degree of VITR will likely motivate patients to comply with health and wellness regimes (e.g., diet and exercise routines) as well as treatment protocols. In general, this emphasizes the role of PCPs where the frequency of patient/provider contact is highest.

At the Marino Center, there is a strong belief in VITR. To this end, patients are provided with a generous amount of time with their providers. While time is not the only element that builds VITR, it’s a good start.