Residency

Teaching hospitals: Not where everyone knows your name

Residency Program Connection, March 3, 2009

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Residents and faculty members put a lot of effort and time into caring for patients, but the majority of patients at teaching hospitals cannot correctly name the physicians who care for them, according to an article in AMNews.

In the study entitled, Ability of Hospitalized Patients to Identify Their In-hospital Physicians, researchers at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine found the following:

  • 75% of patients could not name a single doctor assigned to their care
  • 25% remembered a name
  • Of that quarter of patients who recalled a name, only 40% of them were correct


The study lists several reasons why patients may not be able to correctly identify their physicians, including:

  • Failure of residents to introduce themselves to patients
  • Many different residents care for patients because of work hour limitations


Socioeconomic and demographic factors may also influence whether patients remember their physicians name, says the AMNews article.

Not being able to identify doctors can affect how patients ask questions and what decisions they make during their hospital stay, according to the study, which was published in the Jan.26 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.



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