title: A Missed Opportunity to Improve Patient Satisfaction? Patient Perceptions of Inpatient Communication With Their Primary Care Physician.
abstract: Improving patient satisfaction is a major focus of hospitals. Patient satisfaction could be driven by patient perception of hospital team communication with their primary care physician (PCP). A retrospective mixed methods approach was used to characterize the relationship between patient satisfaction and patient perception of hospital team-PCP communication. Data were obtained through general medicine inpatient and postdischarge interviews, oversampling "vulnerable elders," and a faxed PCP survey. Among 1044 patients and their PCPs, 22.3% of PCPs were not aware of their patient's hospitalization. Among PCPs who reported that communication did not occur, half (49.2%) of their patients thought communication had occurred, implying a lack of patient awareness of discontinuity of care and possibly impeding safety. Patients who perceived that communication occurred were more satisfied with care (70.0% vs 53.1%, P < .001). Therefore, hospitals could potentially improve patient safety and satisfaction by seizing a missed opportunity to improve patient awareness of communication.
authors.affiliation: University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: Dara R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.affiliation: University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Flores
authors.affiliation: University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: Ainoa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Coltri
authors.affiliation: University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: David O
authors.initials: DO
authors.lastname: Meltzer
authors.affiliation: University of Chicago, Chicago, IL varora@medicine.bsd.uchicago.edu.
authors.forename: Vineet M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Arora
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000523:psychology; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D061214:Patient Safety / Q000592:standards; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010465:Perception; D058007:Physicians, Primary Care / Q000523:psychology / Q000592:standards*; D058996:Quality Improvement; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: care transitions; hospitalist-PCP communication; patient safety; patient satisfaction