INTERN CALL STRUCTURE AND PATIENT SATISFACTION

Our institution has instituted ''short-call'' and ''nightfloat'' syste ms to reduce the number of admissions to the traditional ''long-call'' housestaff. However, the nightfloat system introduces increased disco ntinuity to patient care, and interns may spend less time with short-c all patients because they are not required to spend the night on-call. Discontinuity and less time spent with patients may result in decreas ed patient satisfaction. Over a 6-month period, data were collected on 145 consecutive patients admitted to a teaching Veterans Affairs Medi cal Center with the primary diagnoses of congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We found that patients admitted to either short-call or nightfloat interns were significantly less sa tisfied with their care than patients admitted to long-call housestaff , controlling for intern gender, patient age, and patient severity of illness (p = .02). Residency program directors need to realize that ch anges in the structure of teaching environment may have an impact on p atient satisfaction.