The Ability of Patients to Correctly Identify Their Hospitalist on a Patient Satisfaction Survey and the Impact of This Factor on Hospitalist Scores.

Background: Patient evaluations of their physician have been utilized to evaluate physician performance and calculate hospital reimbursement. Despite the routine use of these evaluations, little research has been done to evaluate the accuracy of these evaluations. We assessed patient's ability to correctly identify the hospitalist providing their care and whether identification of the hospitalist affected the cumulative satisfaction scores. Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted at a suburban voluntary hospital. Hospitalists were evaluated anonymously by their patients over a 4-month period on a questionnaire designed to assess patient satisfaction. Results: One hundred fifty-eight patients evaluated 16 hospitalists yielding an average of 9.9 evaluations per hospitalist. Forty Nine (31%) patients were able to identify their hospitalist. The top score (3) accounted for 76% of patient responses across all questions. Significant differences (p =.0007) existed in the distribution of these scores when patients who could identify their hospitalist was compared with those who couldn't. The variables for effective communication and hospitalist introduction were scored significantly higher by patients who could identify their hospitalist (2.77 vs 2.55; p =.027 and 2.90 vs 2.67; p =.005). Patients of younger age and female gender were more likely identify their hospitalist. Conclusions: Less than one-third of patients were able to correctly identify their hospitalist. The variables for effective communication and hospitalist introduction to the patient were scored significantly higher by patients who could identify their hospitalist. The elimination of scores by patients who could not correctly identify their provider resulted in marked changes in the percentile ranking of these providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]