Clarifying Parents' and Pediatricians' Views of Partnership.

PURPOSE Given the importance of partnership in improving health care outcomes among children, there is a substantial need to understand better what partnership means to parents and physicians. The goal of this study was to develop a partnership survey that was based on parents' and pediatricians' opinions about the key concepts of partnership. METHODS Parents of patients visiting an affluent suburban private practice and a federally qualified health center, and 2 groups of pediatricians, were asked to review 61 partnership concepts and identify those they considered as being important to partnership. RESULTS Parents and pediatricians from both practices agreed that 42 (68.9%) of the concepts were important to partnership. Sixteen of these concepts were dropped because they were redundant. Parents from both the suburban practice and health center identified 5 (8.2%) concepts that they believed contributed to partnership. Seven (11.5%) concepts were viewed as important to parents and pediatricians from the suburban practice but not to parents from the health center. Significant socioeconomic differences between the 2 parent groups suggested factors that explained the differences between parent groups. CONCLUSION The 38 concepts endorsed by parents and pediatricians provided a nuanced view of partnership and formed the Parent Pediatrician Partnership Survey.