Background: In 2013, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services initiated incentive payments based partly on patient satisfaction surveys. Our academic practice has two models of well child visits: an innovative group model (CenteringParentingR) and traditional individual care. In CenteringParentingR, a cohort of 6-8 infant/parent dyads come together for visits with a pediatric provider for the first two years of life. Group well child visits have been shown to have high parental satisfaction but there is limited information comparing parent satisfaction in group well child visits to traditional individual well child visits.
Objective: To compare patient satisfaction scores between CenteringParentingR group well child visits and individual well child visits in the first 2 years of life.
Design/Methods: We conducted a cross sectional patient satisfaction survey of all children 0-25 months of age who made a well child visit, group or individual, to a hospital-based, academic practice that serves an urban, low-income population. Our institution uses the National Research Center's (NRC) System to assess patient satisfaction. Patients are contacted via email, SMS text message, or phone within two days of the visit. The survey includes 3-5 randomized questions and a standard question asking patients to rate the quality of the care experience between 1 and 10, 1 being worst, 10 being best. Patients complete the survey no more than biannually. We compared the scores for the standard question for group visits to scores for individual visits for the period 12/2017 to 12/2019. NRC categorizes scores as follows: 9-10 = promotor, 6 -8 = passive, 5 or less = detractor.
Results: The patient response rate was 16.4% (104 /634) for group visits and 18.3% (718/3923) for individual visits. Mean NRC patient satisfaction scores for the quality of care experience were significantly higher for group visits compared to individual visits (9.3+1.5 vs 8.7+2.3, p=0.026). The majority of the responses were promoters (69% group vs 64% individual, p=NS). 5% of responses in group visits were detractors vs 9% of individual well visits (p=NS).
Conclusion: We found a significantly higher mean score on NRC patient satisfaction scores for the quality of care experience for group well visits compared to individual well child visits. This provides evidence of higher parental satisfaction with group well child visits. Group well child visits may increase patient satisfaction, which could translate into higher reimbursement for health care providers.
