The Association Between Physician Demographics on Patient Satisfaction Survey Results in Pediatrics: A Role for Implicit Bias?

Abstract

We assessed associations of pediatrician demographic characteristics with patient satisfaction (PS) scores. We performed a retrospective analysis of PS scores among pediatricians at a single academic institution and their associations with individual demographic features including gender, race, and geographic location of medical school education. We analyzed PS survey results for 153 pediatricians, 48.4% of whom were female. Males received higher scores in 4 out of 10 questions including "Likelihood of your recommending this care provider to others" (P = .007). We observed similar findings for white pediatricians compared to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) (P = .033) and US medical school graduates compared to international school graduates (P = .044). Overall, we observed that pediatricians who are female, BIPOC, or international medical school graduates receive lower PS scores than their counterparts. The impact of potential survey responder bias should be acknowledged when interpreting PS scores for pediatricians.