Measuring General Surgery Residents’ Communication Skills From the Patient’s Perspective Using the Communication Assessment Tool (CAT)

ObjectiveThe Communication Assessment Tool (CAT) has been used and validated to assess Family and Emergency Medicine resident communication skills from the patient’s perspective. However, it has not been previously reported as an outcome measure for general surgery residents. The purpose of this study is to establish initial benchmarking data for the use of the CAT as an evaluation tool in an osteopathic general surgery residency program. Results are analyzed quarterly and used by the program director to provide meaningful feedback and targeted goal setting for residents to demonstrate progressive achievement of interpersonal and communication skills with patients.DesignThe 14-item paper version of the CAT (developed by Makoul et al. for residency programs) asks patients to anonymously rate surgery residents on discrete communication skills using a 5-point rating scale immediately after the clinical encounter. Results are reported as the percentage of items rated as “excellent” (5) by the patient.SettingThe setting is a hospital-affiliated ambulatory urban surgery office staffed by the residency program.ParticipantsParticipants are representative of adult patients of both sexes across all ages with diverse ethnic backgrounds. They include preoperative and postoperative patients, as well as those needing diagnostic testing and follow-up.ResultsData have been collected on 17 general surgery residents from a single residency program representing 5 postgraduate year levels and 448 patient encounters since March 2012. The reliability (Cronbach α) of the tool for surgery residents was 0.98. The overall mean percentage of items rated as excellent was 70% (standard deviations = 42%), with a median of 100%.ConclusionsThe CAT is a useful tool for measuring 1 facet of resident communication skills—the patient’s perception of the physician-patient encounter. The tool provides a unique and personalized outcome measure for identifying communication strengths and improvement opportunities, allowing residents to receive specific feedback and mentoring by program directors.