Controlling Patient Expectations: Important in Maximizing Patient Satisfaction

One goal of patient care is happy, healthy patients. We physicians know that at one level, but it is surprisingly easy to forget. For example, we assume that a person whose visual acuity has been improved from 20/60 to 20/20 will be happy. Clearly, there is a relationship of some sort between level of acuity and ability to function, and a relationship between the ability to function and happiness. Indeed, we physicians tend to underestimate the importance of visual ability in our patients.1-3AUTHOR From the Glaucoma Service, Wills Eye Hospital/Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Address reprint requests to George L. Spaeth, MD, Wills Eye Hospital, 840 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107.