Nurse Practitioners Bode Better Than Other Providers on a National Survey

There are gaps in research findings about patient satisfaction of nurse practitioners from large national data sets. The literature revealed findings from small sample and local practice settings of nurse practitioner satisfaction ratings. The purpose of this research was to compare Medicaid patient responses regarding health care providers on the National Medicaid Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and System (CAHPS). The design was a secondary data analysis of 53,550 primary health care providers including nurse practitioners and medical doctors by patients from the 2016 CAHPS Clinician and Group Database. In broad terms, this is called the “What the patients say about their care providers and medical practices”. This is a de-identified data file containing Medicaid adult patient responses. The survey is constructed with a 4 point scale (ie always, usually, sometimes, and never). Generally, the survey addresses a variety of indicators for the purpose of recognizing the patient experiences with difference health care providers. The researchers selected the following items to conduct analysis: a. focused getting timely appointments, care, and information; b. communications with patients; c. helpfulness, courteous, and respectful office staff; d. paying attention to mental or emotional health; e. taking care of your health; f. discuss medication decisions; g. follow-up for test results; h. overall ratings; i. access to care; and j. care and other appointments. Descriptive statistics and MANOVA were used to analyze the data. Participants completing the survey items concerning timeliness with appointment, helpful office staff, and getting the follow up tests needed, scored lower for MD (M = 3.44, SD = .59) when compared to NP (M = 3.66, SD = .43). MD also scored lower on average in the category of communication (M = 3.72, SD = .54) than NP (M = 3.81, SD = .41). The findings include a significance differences between the two groups of providers F(3, 53423) = 26.10, p < .001 when comparing patient satisfaction; communication and; timeliness with appointment, helpful office staff, and getting the follow up tests needed. Patients preferred nurse practitioner versus care provided by physicians. In addition to direct patient care, patients were also more satisfied with office performance, including communication and timeliness of appointments. The results of this study were limited to the breadth of the secondary data obtained. Future research should include the collection of qualitative data to help identify specific qualities that differentiate care practices of the two healthcare disciplines.