Evaluation of a nurse practitioner-staffed preventive medicine program in a fee-for-service multispecialty clinic

Abstract

Patient satisfaction with the physical assessment services offered by the preventive medicine department of a large, multispecialty clinic was evaluated by a questionnaire forwarded to 492 randomly selected from patients voluntarily choosing to be examined by physicians or nurse practitioners. In comparing nurse practitioner and physician patient satisfaction concerning health appraisal in this fee-for-service group practice setting, it was found that although both groups of health professionals received favorable patient evaluations, the nurse practitioners received significantly more favorable evaluations (.01 level) than the physicians on eight items of a 12-item patient satisfaction scale. Patients seen by nurse practitioners had significantly less waiting time and more new health problems detected than those seen by physicians. No differences occurred between the groups concerning patient compliance, existing health problems undetected, confidence in the examination, and cost of the examination.