A. E. Liepert1, D. Segersten1, H. Jung1, A. O’Rourke1, S. Agarwal1 1University Of Wisconsin,Department Of Surgery,Madison, WI, USA
Introduction: Patient satisfaction is becoming an important factor in healthcare reimbursement. Structured interdisciplinary rounding (SIR) has been shown to be effective in improving patient care and satisfaction, but trauma has often been excluded as this population is associated with uncertainty in presentation, hospital course, and outcome. We examined the impact of non-ICU interdisciplinary rounding upon trauma patient satisfaction.
Methods: Over a nine-month period, patient satisfaction scores were reported in the trauma inpatient population before and after intervention of SIR at our ACS verified Level One trauma center. Pre-intervention rounding consisted of separate physician (resident and attending) examination and discussion with patients, whereas the intervention group consisted of bedside rounds with physicians (resident and attending), nursing, pharmacy, nutrition, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and social work. Scripted and practiced communication between team members, patients and families was instituted. Patient satisfaction surveys were mailed to patients at time of discharge, collected, and reported in rolling three month reports. As this was a quality improvement initiative, with aggregate data devoid of patient identifiers, the study is exempt from Institutional Review Board review.
Results: 2339 trauma patients were admitted to the hospital, of which 829 patients were admitted to the trauma care ward, making up 67% of the floor’s total population. From patient satisfaction surveys, patient perception of satisfaction in nursing communication revealed an overall downward trend (83.3% to 76.9%); however, patient perception of physician communication improved (nadir 69.6% to 76.9%).
Conclusion: The implementation of SIR can have an impact upon patient satisfaction in the trauma population. Future studies examining team communication and patient outcome need to be performed to fully evaluate the impact of this intervention.