Inability of Physicians and Nurses to Predict Patient Satisfaction in the Emergency Department
Introduction: Patient satisfaction is a commonly assessed dimension of emergency department (ED) care quality. The ability of ED clinicians to estimate patient satisfaction is unknown. We sought to evaluate the ability of emergency medicine resident physicians and nurses to predict patient-reporte...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
eScholarship Publishing, University of California
2015-12-01
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| Series: | Western Journal of Emergency Medicine |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://escholarship.org/uc/item/8nh3p9xz |
| Summary: | Introduction: Patient satisfaction is a commonly assessed dimension of emergency department (ED)
care quality. The ability of ED clinicians to estimate patient satisfaction is unknown. We sought to
evaluate the ability of emergency medicine resident physicians and nurses to predict patient-reported
satisfaction with physician and nursing care, pain levels, and understanding of discharge instructions.
Methods: We studied a convenience sample of 100 patients treated at an urban academic ED.
Patients rated satisfaction with nursing care, physician care, pain level at time of disposition and
understanding of discharge instructions. Resident physicians and nurses estimated responses
for each patient. We compared patient, physician and nursing responses using Cohen’s kappa,
weighting the estimates to account for the ordinal responses.
Results: Overall, patients had a high degree of satisfaction with care provided by the nurses and
physicians, although this was underestimated by providers. There was poor agreement between
physician estimation of patient satisfaction (weighted κ=0.23, standard error: 0.078) and nursing
estimates of patient satisfaction (weighted κ=0.11, standard error: 0.043); physician estimation
of patient pain (weighted κ=0.43, standard error: 0.082) and nursing estimates (weighted κ=0.39,
standard error: 0.081); physician estimates of patient comprehension of discharge instruction
(weighted κ=0.19, standard error: 0.082) and nursing estimates (weighted κ=0.13, standard error:
0.078). Providers underestimated pain and patient comprehension of discharge instructions.
Conclusion: ED providers were not able to predict patient satisfaction with nurse or physician
care, pain level, or understanding of discharge instructions. |
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| ISSN: | 1936-900X 1936-9018 |