The effect of primary care training on patient satisfaction ratings

This study examines the association between type of internal medicine training and satisfaction ratings among 509 patients who visited the clinic of an urban teaching hospital over a 3-month period in 1994. When controlling for patient, health-system, and other resident factors, primary care training was significantly associated with higher satisfaction ratings (cumulative odds ratio 1.53; 95% confidence interval 1.04, 2.25; p=.031) than categorical training. Using satisfaction ratings to rank the residents without adjusting for patient and health-system factors would have correctly classified only 27% of the residents in the lowest quartile. These findings have implications for both the education and potential employment of internists.