Racial and Ethnic Bias Impact Perceptions of Surgeon Communication

Objective:

To evaluate patient satisfaction scores as a function of physician and patient race and sex.

Background:

Patient satisfaction is increasingly used as a surrogate for physician performance. How patient and surgeon race and ethnicity affect perceptions of surgeon communication and care is not widely explored.

Methods:

Press Ganey patient satisfaction surveys collected from January 2019 to September 2020 were studied. Multivariate logistic regressions were used to identify factors associated with favorable surgeon performance as a function of patient and surgeon demographics.

Results:

A total of 4732 unique outpatient satisfaction survey responses were analyzed. The majority of patients were White (60.5%), followed by Asian (8.6%), Black (4.2%), and Hispanic (4.3%). URM accounted for 8.9% of the 79 surgeons evaluated, and 34% were female. Black, Hispanic, and Asian patients were more likely to report unfavorable experiences than their White counterparts (P

Source: Annals of Surgery - September 14, 2021 Category: Surgery Tags: PAPERS OF THE 141ST ASA ANNUAL MEETING Source Type: research