Patients' views of the medical education setting.

The results of a survey of 1,334 patients at three community health centers operated by the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford are presented and discussed. The research was designed to begin to obtain a better understanding of the patient's views on the quality of care and medical students in the medical education setting. Patients in the study reported being attracted to the educational site for the same reasons they would go to a private physician, that is, location, advice of a friend, or dissatisfaction with their previous doctor. They also reported satisfaction with care in general and with the specific components of care at the health centers. However, the patients expressed different views of the medical student's role, and there were differences in the patients' preferences for a student or a faculty physician depending on their medical problem or condition. These views of the student's role and the patients' preferences of physicians were found to be related significantly to the patient's age, the patient's perception of his primary source of medical care, the patient's evaluation of the effect of medical schools on health care, and the patient's level of satisfaction with the care received.