Teaching the Emergency Department Patient Experience: Needs Assessment from the CORD-EM Task Force (http://westjem.com/original-research/teaching-the-emergency-department-patient-experience-needs-assessment-from-the-cord-em-taskforce.html)

Introduction Since the creation of Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) patient satisfaction (PS) scores, patient experience (PE) has become a metric that can profoundly a ect the scal balance of hospital systems, reputation of entire departments and welfare of individual physicians. While government and hospital mandates demonstrate the prominence of PE as a quality measure, no such mandate exists for its education. The objective of this study was to determine the education and evaluation landscape for PE in categorical emergency medicine (EM) residencies. Methods This was a prospective survey analysis of the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors (CORD) membership. Program directors (PDs), assistant PDs and core faculty who are part of the CORD listserv were sent an email link to a brief, anonymous electronic survey. Respondents were asked their position in the residency, the name of their department, and questions regarding the presence and types of PS evaluative data and PE education they provide. Results We obtained 168 responses from 139 individual residencies, representing 72% of all categorical EM residencies. This survey found that only 27% of responding residencies provide PS data to their residents. Of those programs, 61% o er simulation scores, 39% provide third-party attending data on cases with resident participation, 37% provide third-party acquired data speci cally about residents and 37% provide internally acquired quantitative data. Conclusion The majority of categorical EM residencies do not provide either PS data or any organized PE curriculum. Those that do use a heterogeneous set of data collection modalities and educational techniques. American Osteopathic Association and Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education residencies show no signi cant di erences in their resident PS data provision or formal curricula. Further work is needed to improve education given the high stakes of PS scores in the emergency physician's career.