Do Pediatric Providers Have Lower Press Ganey Scores Than Adult Providers?

Introduction: Prior studies suggest that pediatric otolaryngology providers garner lower patient satisfaction than adults. However, this difference is not well characterized. This study investigates whether differences still exist in providers who treat both pediatric and adult patients.

Methods: Press Ganey Medical Practice surveys completed by patients or parents on their first-time visit with 5 general otolaryngology providers from July 2014 to March 2022 were analyzed. Patient surveys were categorized by child ( < 18 years old) or adult and consisted of 14 items including six service domains of access, visit, nursing, provider, personal issues, and assessment. Comparisons between age groups were performed with Walsh’s t-test and ANOVA. Multivariable logistic regression analysis, controlling for gender and provider, was used to evaluate the likelihood of patients reporting the highest scores (HI-SCORES) in each service domains based on patient age.

Results: A total of 2540 patients completed the Press Ganey survey on their initial clinical visit and were included in the analyses. Pediatric patients (n=155; 6.1%) had a mean age of 10.2 ± 6 years and adult patients (n=2385; 93.9%) had a mean age of 55.1 ± 16.5 years. There were no significant differences in the mean overall patient satisfaction scores between pediatric and adults and between different pediatric age groups (0-5, 6-11, and 12-17 years old). Further analysis of service domains among pediatric age subgroups found the mean score in the access domain to be higher for the 6–11-year-old age group (means: 85.5, 0-5; 94.7, 6-11; 87.3, 12-17; p=.03). Pediatric patients did not have a significantly higher likelihood (OR=1.02, 95% CI 0.72-1.46, p>0.05) of reporting HI-SCORES compared to adult patients after adjusting for covariates.

Conclusions: There was no significant difference in patient satisfaction scores based on age of patients for providers who treat pediatric and adult patients. Other factors that drive patient satisfaction such as wait time and diagnosis should be considered.