Table 2

Results of Royal College of General Practitioners quality assessment of consultations

Criterion	Prevalence (%)	κ	Rater 1		Rater 2
Criterion	Prevalence (%)	κ	OR	95% CI	OR	95% CI
Patient's contribution encouraged	98	0.92			0.84	0.21 to 8
Is seen to respond to cues that lead to deeper understanding	74	0.72	3.00	0.88 to 19	3.17	1.20 to 12
Obtains sufficient information to include or exclude likely relevant significant conditions	83	0.71	4.82	1.80 to 18	7.50	1.76 to 50
Relevant psychosocial context is clarified by doctor or patient	63	0.80	1.89	0.78 to 6	1.35	0.54 to 4.56
Clinically appropriate working diagnosis is made	94	0.85	1.60	0.49 to 9	1.06	0.27 to 10
Patient's understanding of their problems expressed	84	0.68	1.60	0.66 to 5	1.67	0.62 to 6
Patient's concerns expressed	87	0.79	1.10	0.38 to 4.76	1.42	0.52 to 6
Appropriate management plan is made	97	0.91	7.43	0.90 to 50
Appropriate explanatory communication	91	0.68	2.06	0.78 to 8	1.69
Treatments options were discussed	53	0.31^*	2.18	1.00 to 6	1.29	0.57 to 3.63
Checks understanding	19	0.57	0.94	0.37 to 3.24	2.36	0.81 to 10
Safety-nets consultation	54	0.21^†	1.83	0.83 to 4.93	0.45	0.21 to 1.16
Reaches agreement	99	0.96	1.33	0.16 to 50

Prevalence represents the proportion of consultations in which the criterion was judged to be present, excluding consultations where it was deemed inappropriate or the rater was unsure. Odds ratios represent comparisons of face-to-face versus telephone consultations.
Empty cells indicate that the OR could not be calculated because of no cases with the criterion absent.
↵* Non-prevalence-adjusted κ=0.52.
↵† Non-prevalence-adjusted κ=0.43.