Time Seeing a Hand Surgeon Is Not Associated With Patient Satisfaction

Abstract

Background Previous studies, predominantly in the primary care setting, identified time spent with the physician as an important predictor of satisfaction. It is unknown if the same holds true in hand surgery. Questions/purposes Is patient satisfaction measured immediately after an office visit associated with the duration of time spent with the hand surgeon? What other factors are associated with satisfaction directly after the visits and 2 weeks after the appointment?Methods We prospectively enrolled 81 patients visiting our hand and upper extremity surgery outpatient clinic. We recorded their demographics and measured physical function, pain behavior, symptoms of depression, time spent in the waiting room, time spent with the physician, and patient satisfaction. Office times were measured using our patient ambulatory tracking system and by a research assistant outside the clinic room. To assess satisfaction we used items from the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey (a federally developed standardized survey instrument) relevant to our study. Two weeks later, 51 (64%) patients were available for telephone followup and the same measures were completed. Mean time spent with the hand surgeon was 8 ± 5 minutes and mean in-office wait time to see the hand surgeon was 32 ± 18 minutes. A priori power analyses indicated that 77 patients would provide 80% power to detect an effect size f 2 = 0.18 for a regression with five predictors. This means that we would detect time spent with the physician as a significant factor if it accounted for 7% or more of the variability in satisfaction. Results Time spent with the hand surgeon was not associated with patient satisfaction measured directly after the visit (r = -0.023; p = 0.84). Longer time waiting to see the physician correlated with decreased patient satisfaction (r = -0.30; p = 0.0057). The final multivariable model for increased satisfaction directly after the office visit included shorter waiting time (regression coefficient [b] -0.0014; partial R 2 0.094; 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.0024 to -0.00042; p = 0.006) and being married/living with a partner (b 0.057; partial R 2 0.11; 95% CI, 0.021-0.093; p = 0.002 [adjusted R 2 0.18; p \ 0.001]). Similarly, multivariable analysis found higher patient satisfaction 2 weeks after the visit to be independently associated with shorter waiting time (b -0.0037; partial R 2 0.10; 95% CI, One of the authors (DR) certifies that he, or a member of his immediate family, has or may receive payments or benefits, during the study period, from Wright Medical (Memphis, TN, USA) of less than USD 10,000; Skeletal Dynamics (Miami, FL, USA) of less than USD 10,000; Biomet (Warsaw, IN, USA) of less than USD 10,000; AO North America (Paoli, PA, USA) of less than USD 10,000; and AO International (Dubendorf, Switzerland) of less than USD 10,000. All ICMJE Conflict of Interest Forms for authors and Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research 1 editors and board members are on file with the publication and can...

Patient Satisfaction and its Relation to Perceived Visit Duration With a Hand Surgeon

“…8,28 In addition, no association was found between actual visit duration and patient satisfaction, corroborating prior results from other specialty-care studies. 9,10 Patient-rated surgeon empathy was the strongest driver of patient satisfaction, a finding that is consistent with a recent study in hand surgery patients. 10 Depressive symptoms also accounted for some of the variation in satisfaction, which is in agreement with previous orthopedic studies and suggests that emotional health may influence the patient experience.…”

Patient Satisfaction Is Associated With Time With Provider But Not Clinic Wait Time Among Orthopedic Patients

“…] ated with patient satisfaction. 5 Research in the primary care setting has suggested that both time with the provider and clinic wait time are key determinants of patient satisfaction. [6][7][8][9] Although patient satisfaction is subjective, many tools are used to provide a quantitative measure of this consideration.…”

“…10 The Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey (CAHPS) is a federally developed and validated survey that is commonly used to assess patient satisfaction. 5,9 The CAHPS survey has been used to measure satisfaction among orthopedic patients in the clinical setting. 5,10 In addition to satisfaction, a more traditional measure of quality in health care is functional outcome.…”

“…5,9 The CAHPS survey has been used to measure satisfaction among orthopedic patients in the clinical setting. 5,10 In addition to satisfaction, a more traditional measure of quality in health care is functional outcome. The Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Physical Function item bank is a 124-item questionnaire that provides valid, reliable, and comparable results to assess the functional status of orthopedic patients.…”

Patient Preferences in Office-Based Orthopedic Care: A Prospective Evaluation

“…Interestingly, the authors reported that patient satisfaction was not correlated with education level, sex, marital status, whether the patients were evaluated by a resident physician before seeing the attending surgeon, self-reported mental status, tobacco usage, the type of clinic visit, or the waiting time to see the surgeon (average, about 40 minutes for this cohort). 22 Similarly, Teunis and colleagues 23 reported an average 32-minute wait time in 81 patients presenting for care at an orthopedic hand clinic and demonstrated that a longer wait time was associated with decreased patient satisfaction. These results corroborate the findings of this study that a short wait time is important to patients when evaluating the process of care.…”