Correlations between quality metrics and patient experience at the provider-level in the emergency department
Description
Background: The emergency department (ED) is often the first place a new patient interacts with a hospital, making patient experience a crucial factor in future utilization. The ED is also a focus point for reviewing metrics associated with quality care (e.g., ED length of stay, computed tomography scan rate, admission/observation rate, and 48-hour bounceback rate). Our study examined the association between providers’ quality metrics and patient experience survey scores.
Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted examining four central Iowa EDs within the same health system during the period of 1/1/2022 - 3/31/2025. ED providers at these facilities were included if they received ≥20 discharged patient experience surveys during the study period. Providers’ patient experience scores and standard ED quality metrics were collected from a hospital database. The primary outcome was to determine if individual quality metrics were correlated with patient experience survey scores.
Results: In total, 68 ED providers were included in the study, 42 physicians and 26 advanced practice providers. A positive association was seen between the percentage of patients who received a CT scan and net promoter score (NPS) percentage (0.68; 95% CI: 0.04, 1.32), while a negative association was seen between ED length of stay and NPS percentage (-0.12; 95% CI: -0.18, -0.07). Both admission/observation rate (0.50; 95% CI: -0.10, 1.11) and 48-hour bounceback rate (0.97; 95% CI: -1.93, 3.87) failed to reveal an association.
Conclusion: Our study indicated that providers with higher CT scan rates or lower ED length of stays had better patient experience scores. These variables do not indicate a causal relationship, but suggest that provider practice patterns affect both patient experience and quality metrics.
Citation Information
Rhode, Anders; Bentz, Matthew; Wittry, Alex; Hawthorne, Clint; Hurdelbrink, Jonathan; Smith, Hayden; and Kluesner, Nick, "Correlations between quality metrics and patient experience at the provider-level in the emergency department" (2026). Office of Research DMU Research Symposium. 42.
https://digitalcommons.dmu.edu/researchsymposium/2025rs/2025abstracts/42
Correlations between quality metrics and patient experience at the provider-level in the emergency department
Background: The emergency department (ED) is often the first place a new patient interacts with a hospital, making patient experience a crucial factor in future utilization. The ED is also a focus point for reviewing metrics associated with quality care (e.g., ED length of stay, computed tomography scan rate, admission/observation rate, and 48-hour bounceback rate). Our study examined the association between providers’ quality metrics and patient experience survey scores.
Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted examining four central Iowa EDs within the same health system during the period of 1/1/2022 - 3/31/2025. ED providers at these facilities were included if they received ≥20 discharged patient experience surveys during the study period. Providers’ patient experience scores and standard ED quality metrics were collected from a hospital database. The primary outcome was to determine if individual quality metrics were correlated with patient experience survey scores.
Results: In total, 68 ED providers were included in the study, 42 physicians and 26 advanced practice providers. A positive association was seen between the percentage of patients who received a CT scan and net promoter score (NPS) percentage (0.68; 95% CI: 0.04, 1.32), while a negative association was seen between ED length of stay and NPS percentage (-0.12; 95% CI: -0.18, -0.07). Both admission/observation rate (0.50; 95% CI: -0.10, 1.11) and 48-hour bounceback rate (0.97; 95% CI: -1.93, 3.87) failed to reveal an association.
Conclusion: Our study indicated that providers with higher CT scan rates or lower ED length of stays had better patient experience scores. These variables do not indicate a causal relationship, but suggest that provider practice patterns affect both patient experience and quality metrics.
