Patient satisfaction with physician assistants (PAs) in an ED fast track

The study objective was to determine patient satisfaction with physician as sistants (PAs) in an emergency department (ED) fast track (FT), An addition al goal was to determine if patients would be willing to wait longer to be seen primarily by an emergency physician (EP) rather than a PA. The study w as conducted between March 1, 1999 and May 1, 1999 at a community hospital with an annual ED census of 48,644 patients; 18% are seen in the ED FT. All patients were seen primarily by a PA, An anonymous survey was given to pat ients at time of discharge. Patients rated their degree of satisfaction by placing an X on a 100 millimeter visual analogue scale, Patients also indic ated if they would be willing to wait longer to be seen primarily by an EP rather than a PA. A total of 111 surveys were analyzed, for a response rate of 11%. Sixty-two patients (56%) were women and 49 men (44%), with a mean age of 28 years, Twenty-seven patients (24%) were younger than 18 years and required a legal guardian to complete the survey. The mean patient satisfa ction score was 93 (95% CI: 90.27 to 95.73). Only 13 patients (12%) indicat ed they would be willing to wait longer to be seen primarily by an EP rathe r than a PA. Patients seen in an ED FT are very satisfied with the care ren dered by a PA, Few patients would be willing to wait longer in such a setti ng to be seen primarily by an EP. (Am J Emerg Med 2000;18:661-665. Copyrigh t (C) 2000 by W.B. Saunders Company).