Implementing Patient Satisfaction Surveys to Assess Resident Professionalism and Communication

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OBJECTIVE: To develop and implement an outpatient patient feedback measure to assess OBGYN resident professionalism and communication. METHODS: After obtaining institutional IRB exemption, we used four questions from inpatient Press Ganey survey assessing communication and professionalism (Did your doctor: 1) treat you with courtesy and respect; 2) listen carefully to you; 3) explain things in a way you could understand; and 4) give you time to ask questions) with the answer scale: Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always. We administered the same questions to OBGYN residents to determine their baseline perception of their patient–physician communication and professionalism skills. EVALUATION: This was a longitudinal study, with collection of outpatient OBGYN patient surveys initially over 3 months. After pilot data (n=22) yielded the same answer (Always) for each question, the answer scale was changed (Yes, No, and Unsure). Data from the new questionnaire (n=34) again yielded the same answer (Yes) to each question. Resident answers showed slightly more variation. All residents (n=17) felt they treated patients with courtesy and respect and gave time for questions. Only 1/17 resident felt s/he sometimes did not listen carefully to patient concerns and 5/17 residents felt they had a hard time explaining things in a manner patients would understand. DISSEMINATION: This was initiated to create a template that could be used by other residency programs as part of their evaluation system. REFLECTIVE CRITIQUE: This is not useful in its current form. I plan to reassess the survey content, process and administration.