1. References Methods Introduction Results Dicussion The Effect of Resident Physicians on Press Ganey Scores in the Emergency Department The patient’s experience of the medical care they receive and their satisfaction with that experience are increasingly tied to both hospital reimbursement and to individual physician compensation. Patient satisfaction measures such as the Press-Ganey survey are used to evaluate the hospital and staff that care for a patient during their hospitalization and ACEP recognizes the significance of these new measures. 1 In recent years, several studies have assessed the impact of residents on Press-Ganey scores. Inpatient hospitalist teams with residents were found to either improve or have no effect on patient satisfaction scores. 2,3 Hospitals in general and emergency departments specifically are paying more attention to the feedback that patients provide, but there is a paucity of literature on the impact that residents have on their satisfaction. To our knowledge, there has been no published literature comparing patient satisfaction scores among residents and attendings in the emergency department. We look here at the effect that residents have on patient satisfaction in a busy community emergency department where patients are evaluated by either an attending alone or an attending physician and a resident. The survey items that we reviewed include evaluation of wait time, physician courtesy, physician concern for the patient’s comfort, timely update of results and perceived physician communication skills. The patients treated by an attending with a resident tended give their physician interaction a higher score; however, the difference was not significant for any single item. Our setting is a community emergency department with a level II trauma designation that sees 115,000 patients a year and recently established a three year emergency medicine residency. Residents complete structured training on patient satisfaction as part of their residency orientation. Press Ganey survey answers that relate to the patient-physician interaction were tabulated for the first three quarters of 2015. A total of 816 surveys were returned in this time period. Patient encounters were divided into two categories, evaluation by attending only and attending with resident. Patients seen by advanced practioners were excluded. A mixed regression analysis was performed on individual questions to compare the two groups. Table 1 Comparison of Press Ganey Scores for Attendings and Attendings with Residents The patient’s experience of the medical care they receive and their satisfaction with that experience are increasingly tied to both hospital reimbursement and to individual physician compensation. Resident training will necessarily impact these relationships; while having residents participate in the care of patients can add to the length and complexity of each interaction, patients evaluated by emergency medicine residents does not appear to reduce the overall patient experience. 1. Patient Satisfaction. American College of Emergency Physicians website. http://www.acep.org/patientsatisfaction/ Published June 2011. Accessed November 1, 2015. 2. Iannuzzi MC, Iannuzzi JC, Holtsbery A, Wright SM, Knohl SJ. Comparing hospitalist-resident to hospitalist-midlevel practioner team performance on length of stay and direct patient care cost. Journal of Graduate Medical Education. 2015; 7(1): 65-69. 3. Bastani A, Shagiri B, Palomba K, Bananno D, Anderson W. An ED scribe program is able to improve throughput time and patient satisfaction. American Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2014; 32(5): 39-402. Sayegh,Rockan MD; Berns, Alyssa DO; Finefrock, Douglas DO; Feldman, Joseph MD, FACEP Department of Emergency Medicine, Hackensack University Medical Center, Hackensack, New Jersey Survey ItemAttendings Only (N=501) Attendings with Residents (N=166) P-Value Overall Question Average 78.74 (4.00)80.43 (4.00)0.8542 Waiting time in the treatment area, before being seen by a doctor 64.71 (1.54)64.47 (2.76)0.9961 Courtesy of the doctor85.19 (1.02)86.88 (1.78)0.3895 Doctor’s concern for your comfort while treating you 80.88 (1.20)82.70 (2.08)0.2110 Doctor’s concern to keep you informed about your treatment 80.27 (1.20)83.28 (2.09)0.1009 Degree to which the doctor took time to listen to you 82.63 (1.12)84.82 (1.93)0.2604 Disclosures No authors have any conflicts to declare