Pg. Omalley et al., A PROSPECTIVE-STUDY TO ASSESS THE EFFECT OF AMBULATORY TEACHING ON PATIENT SATISFACTION, Academic medicine, 72(11), 1997, pp. 1015-1017
Citations number
7
Categorie Soggetti
Medicine, General & Internal","Education, Scientific Disciplines","Medical Informatics
Purpose. To assess the effect of ambulatory teaching on patients' sati
sfaction. Method. In 1996, 103 adult patients presenting to the Walter
Reed General Medicine Walk-in Clinic completed a patient-satisfaction
questionnaire immediately following their visits, during which they w
ere initially seen by a trainee (third-year medical student or intern)
and then seen by a faculty preceptor. The questionnaire included five
items from the validated Medical Outcomes Study (MOS)-9 questionnaire
as well as two open-ended questions. Fourteen staff physicians, 13 st
udents (49% of the visits), and 11 interns (51% of the visits) partici
pated in the study. Satisfaction was analyzed by level of training, an
d the responses from the study patients were compared with the respons
es from 372 usual-care (i.e., non-teaching) patients from the same cli
nic, using the chi-squared test. Results. The study patients were typi
cally pleased with their encounters, rating their overall satisfaction
as excellent (61%), very good (29%), or good (9%). Nearly two thirds
of the patients rated their satisfaction with waiting time to be very
good or excellent. Compared with the usual-care patients, the study pa
tients reported equal or greater satisfaction for all five MOS-9 items
. Ninety-live percent of the study patients said they would be willing
to be seen by a trainee-staff team on future visits. There was no dif
ference in patient satisfaction by trainee level. The study patients c
ited enhanced interaction (45%), enhanced education (34%), and improve
d care (26%) as benefits of trainee-involved care, and increased waiti
ng time (18%) and worse care (5%) as drawbacks. Conclusion. The result
s of this study suggest that ambulatory teaching does not adversely af
fect patient satisfaction, regardless of trainee level, and that patie
nts who have been seen by trainee-staff teams are willing to experienc
e such encounters again.