Association of patient satisfaction with complaints and risk management among emergency physicians.

Background: Patient-physician interactions in the emergency department (ED) are unique in that prior relationships may not exist; interactions are brief, and the environment is hectic.

Objectives: The research hypotheses were that patient satisfaction scores on a commonly used national satisfaction survey are associated with patient complaints and risk management file openings or lawsuits (risk management episodes).

Methods: Administrative databases from an emergency physician management group that staffs 34 EDs in 8 states were merged with patient satisfaction data.