Sara Engel

Sara Engel

Department of Emergency Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

4Years (2023-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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12 August 2023 in Healthcare
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
RWRebekah J. Walker
Rebekah J. Walker
ADAprill Dawson
Aprill Dawson
ATAbigail Thorgerson
Abigail Thorgerson
JCJennifer A. Campbell
Jennifer A. Campbell
SESara Engel
Sara Engel
LELeonard E. Egede
Leonard E. Egede
Racial/ethnic and sex concordance between patients and providers has been suggested as an important consideration in improving satisfaction and increasing health equity. We aimed to guide local efforts by understanding the relationship between satisfaction with care and patient–provider racial/ethnic and sex concordance within our academic medical center’s primary care clinic. Methods: Satisfaction data for encounters from August 2016 to August 2019 were matched to data from the medical record for patient demographics and comorbidities. Data on 33 providers were also obtained, and racial/ethnic and sex concordance between patients and providers was determined for each of the 3672 unique encounters. The primary outcome was top-box scoring on the CGCAHPS overall satisfaction scale (0–8 vs. 9–10). Generalized mixed-effects logistic regression, including provider- and patient-level factors as fixed effects and a random intercept effect for providers, were used to determine whether concordance had an independent relationship with satisfaction. Results: 89.0% of the NHW-concordant pairs and 90.4% of the Minority Race/Ethnicity-concordant pairs indicated satisfaction, while 90.1% of the male-concordant and 85.1% of the female-concordant pairs indicated satisfaction. When fully adjusted, the female-concordant (OR = 0.58, 95% CI 0.35–0.94) and male-discordant (OR = 0.68, 95% CI 0.51–0.91) pairs reported significantly lower top-box satisfaction compared to the male-concordant pairs. Significant differences did not exist in racial/ethnic concordance. Conclusions: In this sample, differences in sex concordance were noted; however, patient- and provider-level factors may be more influential in driving patient satisfaction than race/ethnicity in this health system.