Race, Ethnicity, and Other Patient and Clinical Encounter Characteristics Associated with Patient Experiences of Access to Care

The Press Ganey (PG) Outpatient Medical Practice Survey measures patients' experiences of healthcare access in the U.S. We aimed to identify differences in experiences of access to care by patient race, ethnicity, and other sociodemographic characteristics, an important first step in informing health policy and ensuring equitable healthcare delivery. We performed a cross-sectional analysis of PG surveys for adult outpatient visits within the University of Pennsylvania Health System from 2014-2017, including 119,373 unique patients. Compared with White patients, Black (odds ratio [OR] 0.84; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.80-0.87), Asian (OR 0.62; 95% CI 0.58-0.66), and other/unknown race patients (OR 0.83; 95% CI 0.72-0.94) were each less likely to report the maximum score for timely access to care. Patients of all minoritized groups, as well as those whose primary language was not English, reported lower scores in secondary access measures related to communication and respect, compared to White and primarily English-speaking patients, respectively. Efforts to improve the experience of access to care among racial and ethnic minoritized patients are imperative to achieve equity in healthcare delivery.