BACKGROUND. Patients are increasingly using online information regarding patient experiences to guide care decisions. OBJECTIVE. The purpose of our study was to compare patient experience scores between radiologists and nonradiologist physicians and to assess changes in scores after their public posting in an online physician directory. METHODS. This retrospective study included data collected from May 1, 2017, to November 30, 2018, at a single large academic medical center. After all institutional outpatient visits, patients were e-mailed the Press Ganey Medical Practice Survey, which included 10 questions (answered using a Likert scale and converted to 100-point range) relating to the patient's experience with the specific provider for the encounter. Surveys were distributed to patients after radiology encounters if involving an image-guided invasive procedure. Mean scores for each question and the mean weighted overall score were displayed on each physician's publicly available profile on the hospital's online physician directory and were updated monthly. Scores were compared between radiologists and nonradiologist physicians; temporal changes were assessed. RESULTS. The response rate was 18.0% (96,057/533,983). After exclusions (23,989 surveys completed without provider ratings; 183 surveys evaluating physician assistants), 71,885 physician surveys were evaluated: 2703 surveys for 65 radiologists, 49,403 surveys for 916 physicians in 17 nonsurgical specialties, and 19,779 surveys for 262 physicians in 13 surgical specialties. Over the study period, the mean overall score was 95.6 for radiologists and 95.9 for nonradiologists (94.6 for surgical specialties, 96.4 for nonsurgical specialties). For the 10 individual questions, scores ranged for radiologists from 94.6 (time spent with patient) to 96.8 (friendliness/courtesy) and for nonradiologists from 94.6 (time spent with patient) to 97.0 (friendliness/courtesy). The mean overall score increased from the first month to the final month for radiologists from 94.2 to 97.1 and for nonradiologists from 95.7 to 96.3. For radiologists, the largest improvement was for instructions regarding postprocedure follow-up care (increased from 91.4 to 97.4). CONCLUSION. Radiologists received high scores on patient experience surveys when evaluated on encounters involving invasive procedures, achieving scores similar to those for other physicians. Scores improved over time, possibly related to online posting of survey results. CLINICAL IMPACT. The findings support the utility of implementing patient experience surveys in radiology.
Keywords: patient experience; patient surveys; physician ratings.