Affects of Provider Type on Patient Satisfaction, Productivity and Cost Efficiency

摘要

The purpose of this one year retrospective quantitative study is to determine if the type of provider (physician, nurse practitioner, and physician assistant) influences patient satisfaction and productivity. 104,013 Army beneficiaries who visited their Primary Care Managers (PCM) from January 2004 to December 2004, were surveyed and their results were used as the sample for this study. Provider productivity and cost efficiency within CONUS Military Treatment Facilities (MTFs) was evaluated using the period of January 2004 to December 2004, with a sample size of 20,421. The alpha level was set at .05 and multiple linear regression and analysis of variance were used to determine the predictive value of the model. The results show that there is a statistically significant positive relationship between nurse practitioners and patient satisfaction. The analysis of variance showed that physician assistants have a lower cost per visit ratio, and there is no difference between provider types and relative value units.