Rm. Tamblyn et al., IMPACT OF INACCURACIES IN STANDARDIZED-PATIENT PORTRAYAL AND REPORTING ON PHYSICIAN PERFORMANCE DURING BLINDED CLINIC VISITS, Teaching and learning in medicine, 9(1), 1997, pp. 25-38
Background: Standardized patients (SPs) can be used to conduct blinded
assessment of quality of care. However, variability in patient perfor
mance may influence quality of care scores and undermine the value of
this technique. Purpose: This study was carried out to determine if ac
curacy of SP portrayal and recording was associated with physician per
formance in blinded quality of care assessment. Methods: Double blind
videotapes from 53 SP visits were scored and accuracy of SP portrayal
and recording was correlated with visit quality of care scores. Result
s: SPs accurately presented the case content (96.45%) but were less ac
curate in recording physician actions (k = .71). Accuracy of recording
had a significant negative impact on overall quality of care scores (
r = .38), on scores for medical history, (r = .55), and patient educat
ion (r = .36). Conclusions: Quality of care scores were not influenced
by inacccuracies in presentation, but physician performance measures
that are based on SP reports will be positively biased by recording in
accuracies.