Operative report teaching and synoptic operative reports: a national survey of surgical program directors.

Background: Although operative report documentation (ORD) is an essential skill for surgeons and is evolving with electronic health records (EHRs), little is known about current ORD teaching in surgical training.

Study Design: An electronic survey was sent out in January 2012 to all 1,096 ACGME surgical program directors that assessed characteristics of training programs, EHR adoption, ORD education, synoptic or templated report usage for ORD, and attitudes and opinions about ORD education and electronic tools for ORD. Content thematic analysis of qualitative responses was performed iteratively until reaching saturation.