title: Patient satisfaction and resident postgraduate year status.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Patient satisfaction has been recognized as an important variable affecting healthcare behavior. However, there are limited data on the relationship between doctor post-graduate year (PGY) status and patient satisfaction with provider interpersonal skills and humanistic qualities. The authors aims to assess this relationship using an American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) questionnaire.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were: patients attending a primary care clinic at a large urban academic hospital; and physicians treating them. The survey questionnaire was the ABIM patient satisfaction instrument; ten questions pertaining to humanistic qualities and communication skills with responses from poor to excellent. Mann Whitney U test and multi-variable logistic regression analyses were used to explore score differences by PGY level.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The postgraduate year one (PGY1) had higher patient-satisfaction levels compared to PGY2/PGY3 residents. The PGY1 level residents were more likely to score in the 90th percentile and this remained constant even after adjusting for confounders.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The research was a single-center study and may have been subject to confounding factors such as patient personality types and a survey ceiling effect. The survey's cross-sectional nature may also be a potential limitation. Practical implications - Patient satisfaction varies significantly with PGY status. Though clinical skills may improve with increasing experience, findings imply that interpersonal and humanistic qualities may deteriorate.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study is the first to assess patient satisfaction with PGY status and provides evidence that advanced trainees may need support to keep their communication skills and humanistic qualities from deteriorating as stressors increase to ensure optimal patient satisfaction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, St Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Girish N
authors.initials: GN
authors.lastname: Nadkarni
authors.forename: Manpreet Singh
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Sabharwal
authors.forename: Natraj Reddy
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Ammakkanavar
authors.forename: Narender
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Annapureddy
authors.forename: Rishi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Malhan
authors.forename: Bijal
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mehta
authors.forename: Vijay Naag
authors.initials: VN
authors.lastname: Kanakadandi
authors.forename: Shiv Kumar
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Agarwal
authors.forename: Ethan D
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: Fried
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000193:education; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009519:New York City; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Burnout; Healthcare quality; Patient satisfaction; Postgraduate status