Study objective: To compare the overall satisfaction with emergency department care of patients seen by a nurse practitioner (NP) with that of patients seen in the usual fashion.
Design: A case-control study comparing responses by means of a five-point scale from a prospectively designed telephone survey.
Setting: Midwestern urban university hospital ED in which most patients are seen mainly by fourth-year medical students or house staff and all patients are seen and evaluated by the attending staff.
Participants: Patients or, for children and incompetent adults, the person who accompanied the patient to the ED.
Results: Overall satisfaction was good for both groups of patients and was not significantly different: 3.9 (SD, 1.1) for the NP group versus 4.0 (SD, 1.3) for the control group (P = .66 [NS]).
Conclusions: This study supports data from earlier studies suggesting that patients are satisfied with ambulatory care delivered by NPs.