Background: Patient evaluation of satisfaction with their physician has been utilized for several years and is now being included as a parameter utilized to calculate reimbursement. Despite the routine use of these evaluations by most hospitals and agencies, little research has been done to evaluate the metrics of patient evaluations. We sought to assess whether patients can differentiate across constructs when evaluating their interaction with the hospitalist who provided their care.

Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted at a suburban voluntary hospital that has 318 inpatient beds. All patients admitted to the telemetry floor were eligible. Patients who were unable or refused to answer the questionnaire were excluded The hospitalists were evaluated anonymously by their patients over a 4- month period on a questionnaire designed to assess patient satisfaction. The questionnaire was administered by a team of trained research assistants and asked the patient to identify their physician by name as well as 5 additional questions designed to assess: physician communication, concern, introduction to the patient, answering patient questions and whether the patient would recommend the physician.  Patient satisfaction was rated on 3 point scale. 

Results: During the 3-month period of the study 158 patients evaluated 16 hospitalists yielding an average of 9.9 evaluations per hospitalist. A correlation matrix was calculated across the 5 questions from the individual questionnaires to evaluate whether patients differentiated across these items when evaluating performance. All times showed a significant correlation. The constructs of physician communication, answering patient questions and patient likelihood of recommending a physician were moderately correlated.

 

 

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q5

Communication

Q1

.631**

.364**

.407**

.622**

 

 

.000

.000

.000

.000

Answers Questions

Q2

 

.360**

.291**

.510**

 

 

 

.000

.000

.000

Concern

Q3

 

 

.434**

.402**

 

 

 

 

.000

.000

Introduction

Q4

 

 

 

.331**

 

 

 

 

 

.000

Recommend MD

Q5

 

 

 

1

Conclusions: When patients evaluate satisfaction with their hospitalist they show a modest correlation across factors related to communication, answering patient questions and the patient likelihood of recommending the physician. The low to moderate correlations across the questions suggest that patients are able to differentiate across different constructs on the evaluation form.