Patients' perspectives: subjective responses in a primary care setting.

To determine patients' responses to the evaluation and treatment of primary care outpatient medical complaints, 103 consecutive patient encounters are analyzed. Diagnostic certainty is classified as either high or low and the patients' subjective responses categorized as improved, unchanged, or worse. The overall patient response rates are: 69% improved; 27% unchanged; and 4% worse. Subgroup analysis identify patients with low diagnostic certainty and chronic medical conditions as having reduced subjective improvement rates.