The effects of a physician-nurse patient care team on patient satisfaction in an academic ED.

The objectives were to investigate the effects of a RN/MD patient care team operational change on ED patient satisfaction. In period 1, RNs had standard room assignments and MDs evaluated patients based upon physician availability and perceived patient load. In period 2, RNs and MDs were organized into 2 patient care "teams" and patients were assigned to teams on an alternating basis. Patient satisfaction was rated using the standard ED Press, Ganey survey instrument. A total of 508 surveys were returned in period 1 and 454 in period 2. From period 1 to 2, overall ED patient satisfaction improved from 78.2 +/- 20.4% to 82.2 +/- 17.2% (improvement from 23rd to 59th percentile, P