L. Martin1, M. Gross1, A. Presson1, C. Zhang1, M. Hopkins1, D. Ray1, S. Finlayson1, R. Glasgow1 1University Of Utah,Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Introduction: Patient satisfaction surveys have become an important tool in measuring physician performance in the area of patient experience. We hypothesized that non-modifiable patient factors, such as age, gender and travel distance would be associated with outpatient satisfaction scores.
Methods: Press Ganey Consumer Assessment of Health Providers and Systems (CHAPS) outpatient satisfaction scores from encounters at an academic department of surgery (1/2011-7/2015) were reviewed. Completed surveys (18,373) from patients (10,652) over 18 years were included. Data were collected on patient factors including age, gender, race, language, insurance status, travel distance, and marital status. Information about the specialty of the provider, the visit practice setting (ambulatory center clinic, referral center clinic, cancer center clinic) and whether it was the patient’s first visit were collected. Patients were divided into groups based on the distribution of satisfaction scores—completely satisfied (score =100) or less satisfied (score ≤99). Generalized estimating equation logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors predictive of complete patient satisfaction.
Results: Older age was associated with being completely satisfied (OR 2.31; CI 1.43-3.71, p=0.001) [Figure]. Patients seeing their surgeon for the first time were less likely to be completely satisfied than those being seen in follow up (OR 0.83; CI 0.77-0.89, p<0.001). Compared to patients seen at an ambulatory center clinic setting, there was no difference in complete satisfaction among those patients seen at the cancer center clinic (OR 0.92; CI 0.83-1.03, p=0.14); however, patients seen at the referral center clinic were less likely to be satisfied (OR 0.76; CI 0.69-0.84, p<0.001). There was no difference in satisfaction among patients seen in General Surgery, Vascular Surgery or ENT clinics. Patients were less likely to be completely satisfied when seen in Urology clinic (OR 0.82; CI 0.74-0.91, p<0.001) and were more likely to be completely satisfied when seen in Plastic Surgery clinic (OR 1.16; CI 1.03-1.32 p=0.02). Gender, race, language, insurance status, travel distance, marital status, and a variety of interaction terms were not found to be predictive.
Conclusion: Utilizing satisfaction scores to evaluate providers should take into account non-modifiable factors of the underlying patient population, the specialty of the provider and the practice setting of the clinical visit.
