Integration of Patient Feedback in Family Medicine Residency Programs: A CERA Study

The Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education endorses inclusion of patient feedback in performance evaluations during residency training.

A Council of Academic Family Medicine Educational Research Alliance survey was distributed in spring 2025 to program directors (PDs) at family medicine (FM) residencies, with 321/726 (44.2%) responding. PDs were asked about perceptions and implementation of patient feedback in residency training.

The majority of PDs agree incorporating patient feedback into residency training prepares residents for independent practice (92.5%), improves residents' morale (64.4%), quality of care (61.7%), and communication skills (69.5%), with 68.8% of programs providing written patient feedback to residents twice yearly or greater, and 65.4% of programs providing verbal coaching on patient feedback twice yearly or greater. However, 37.4% of programs implement residency curricula and 33.0% of programs provide faculty development on patient feedback. PDs from programs providing patient feedback curricula are more likely to view this feedback as improving resident morale, quality of care, and communication with patients (P=0.005, P=0.002, P=0.003), with a similar pattern seen among PDs from programs with faculty development on coaching residents about patient feedback. Increased frequency of coaching residents was positively correlated with PD agreement that patient feedback is valuable for improving residents' morale, quality of care, patient communication, and preparation for independent practice.

Although PDs value patient feedback, there are gaps with implementing patient feedback into residency training, and an opportunity exists to better prepare family medicine residents for future independent practice.