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Ask the expert: What tools are available to help an organization obtain and use perception data to evaluate physician competency?

Medical Staff Leader Connection, September 30, 2009

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Perception data differ from clinical data in that it is based on how others view our performance in areas that are relatively subjective, such as communication. Your organization probably has perception data on physicians already available, such as:

Department chair evaluations: This tool is a reasonable starting point, especially if an organization expands it to address all of the general competencies and supplements it with other perception data when the chair has not had the chance to observe performance or interact directly with the physician.

Rule indicators for incident reports and/or complaints: Defining specific rule indicators for perception-based reports allows the medical staff to aggregate the results and set targets for better interpretation.

Patient satisfaction surveys with physician-specific questions: Most patient satisfaction surveys ask the patient specific questions regarding his or her physician’s communication skills and demeanor, as well as the amount of time the physician spent with the patient.

Teaching hospital’s student and resident evaluations of attending physicians: Teaching institutions already have perception data from their trainees on attending physician performance. Although these evaluations are not uniform across all programs and specialties, many include aspects of professionalism and communication.

Staff surveys based on ACGME resident evaluations: Some medical staffs have begun to take questions from the ACGME resident evaluation’s 360-degree survey tool and adapt them to evaluate the attending staff through surveys of the hospital staff.

Internal surveys of physicians and staff: Many organizations have a staff satisfaction survey for hospital employees that may ask general questions regarding the medical staff. An organization could modify these surveys to obtain physician-specific data.

This week’s question and answer are adapted from Measuring Physician Competency: How to Collect, Assess, and Provide Performance Data, published by HCPro.

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