Students Do Not Reduce Patienr Satisfaction in a Family Medicine Clinic as Measured by a Nationally Used Patient Satisfaction Instrument

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Patient satisfaction surveys are widely used to give physicians feedback on their treatment of patients, included in physician performance evaluation and payment, and correlated with better health outcomes. Our research uses industry-standard satisfaction measures to gauge the impact on patient satisfaction of having students involved in a patient's medical care at the family medicine clinic of a large southwestern osteopathic medical school. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted using the Press-Ganey Survey, a national survey commonly used by hospitals and clinics. The survey was modified to indicate the presence of a learner in the patient's treatment room. The survey provided data on patient satisfaction with the office, the visit, and the care received. RESULTS: Overall, 730 survey responses were used in the study, 434 from patients with whose visit included a student. There were no statistically significant differences in patient satisfaction scores, including overall satisfaction with the visit. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that student doctors do not decrease patient satisfaction and that satisfaction scores may be useful in student evaluations. This finding should encourage outpatient physicians who teach medical students that their patient satisfaction scores on the most widely used patient satisfaction survey will not be impacted by teaching students.