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Doctors might suspect that at least some patients gauge the quality of their medical care by the quantity of pharmaceuticals prescribed: The more drugs they receive, the happier they are. Researchers investigated this impression by analyzing telemedicine encounters from a single platform serving patients around the U.S. During a 3.5-year period, 8437 televisits were made for respiratory tract infections that usually are caused by viruses in adults; 66% of visits ended in antibiotic prescriptions, 15% in nonantibiotic prescriptions, and 18% in no prescriptions. Most patients were young adults (age range, 30–49); most of the 85 doctors were U.S.-trained family medicine specialists. All encounters included patient satisfaction ratings.
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