Maria Panagioti, Keith Geraghty, Judith Johnson
JAMA Intern Med. 2018;178(10):1317-1330.
doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.3713
Abstract
Objective To examine whether physician burnout is associated with an increased risk of patient safety incidents, suboptimal care outcomes due to low professionalism, and lower patient satisfaction.
Data Sources MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycInfo, and CINAHL databases were searched until October 22, 2017, using combinations of the key terms physicians, burnout, and patient care. Detailed standardized searches with no language restriction were undertaken. The reference lists of eligible studies and other relevant systematic reviews were hand-searched.
Study Selection Quantitative observational studies.
Data Extraction and Synthesis Two independent reviewers were involved. The main meta-analysis was followed by subgroup and sensitivity analyses. All analyses were performed using random-effects models. Formal tests for heterogeneity (I2) and publication bias were performed.
Main Outcomes and Measures The core outcomes were the quantitative associations between burnout and patient safety, professionalism, and patient satisfaction reported as odds ratios (ORs) with their 95% CIs.
Results Of the 5234 records identified, 47 studies on 42 473 physicians (25 059 [59.0%] men; median age, 38 years [range, 27-53 years]) were included in the meta-analysis. Physician burnout was associated with an increased risk of patient safety incidents (OR, 1.96; 95% CI, 1.59-2.40), poorer quality of care due to low professionalism (OR, 2.31; 95% CI, 1.87-2.85), and reduced patient satisfaction (OR, 2.28; 95% CI, 1.42-3.68). The heterogeneity was high and the study quality was low to moderate. The links between burnout and low professionalism were larger in residents and early-career (≤5 years post residency) physicians compared with middle- and late-career physicians (Cohen Q = 7.27; P = .003). The reporting method of patient safety incidents and professionalism (physician-reported vs system-recorded) significantly influenced the main results (Cohen Q = 8.14; P = .007).
Conclusions and Relevance This meta-analysis provides evidence that physician burnout may jeopardize patient care; reversal of this risk has to be viewed as a fundamental health care policy goal across the globe. Health care organizations are encouraged to invest in efforts to improve physician wellness, particularly for early-career physicians. The methods of recording patient care quality and safety outcomes require improvements to concisely capture the outcome of burnout on the performance of health care organizations.
Showing posts with label Patient Satisfaction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Patient Satisfaction. Show all posts
Saturday, November 10, 2018
Monday, November 30, 2015
Lessons in End-of-Life Care From the V.A.
By David Casarett
The New York Times
November 11, 2015
Here are two excerpts:
Sheila had just received a “patient experience” survey that asked for her opinions about her recent stay in one of our hospitals. He read off some of the questions, in a voice that was tinged with a mix of anger and amusement. Those questions were about the quality of the food (“unimpressive”), the availability of parking (“O.K.”), and the cleanliness of the rooms (“perfect”).
But, he said, “You didn’t ask us about what really matters.”
What he meant, he explained, was that these questions didn’t reflect what was important to a 73-year-old woman with incurable breast cancer who knows she’s going to die in the next six months. And they didn’t assess how well we were supporting her husband, who was overwhelmed with being a caregiver and advocate, a father and grandfather. We asked for their opinions, but we didn’t ask the right questions.
(cut)
We need to be asking these questions. National surveys could easily be modified to include questions that are important to patients like Sheila. We could include questions about emotional and spiritual support, control over decisions, adequacy of information and respect for dignity. Those sorts of questions are arguably important for all of us, but they’re particularly relevant to those who are facing advanced, incurable illnesses.
The entire article is here.
The New York Times
November 11, 2015
Here are two excerpts:
Sheila had just received a “patient experience” survey that asked for her opinions about her recent stay in one of our hospitals. He read off some of the questions, in a voice that was tinged with a mix of anger and amusement. Those questions were about the quality of the food (“unimpressive”), the availability of parking (“O.K.”), and the cleanliness of the rooms (“perfect”).
But, he said, “You didn’t ask us about what really matters.”
What he meant, he explained, was that these questions didn’t reflect what was important to a 73-year-old woman with incurable breast cancer who knows she’s going to die in the next six months. And they didn’t assess how well we were supporting her husband, who was overwhelmed with being a caregiver and advocate, a father and grandfather. We asked for their opinions, but we didn’t ask the right questions.
(cut)
We need to be asking these questions. National surveys could easily be modified to include questions that are important to patients like Sheila. We could include questions about emotional and spiritual support, control over decisions, adequacy of information and respect for dignity. Those sorts of questions are arguably important for all of us, but they’re particularly relevant to those who are facing advanced, incurable illnesses.
The entire article is here.
Monday, May 11, 2015
The Problem With Satisfied Patients
A misguided attempt to improve healthcare has led some hospitals to focus on making people happy, rather than making them well.
Alexandra Robbins
The Atlantic
Originally published April 17, 2015
Here is an excerpt:
Patient-satisfaction surveys have their place. But the potential cost of the subjective scores are leading hospitals to steer focus away from patient health, messing with the highest stakes possible: people’s lives.
The vast majority of the thirty-two-question survey, known as HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) addresses nursing care. For example, in a section about nurses, the survey asks, “During this hospital stay, after you pressed the call button, how often did you get help as soon as you wanted it?”
This question is misleading because it doesn’t specify whether the help was medically necessary. Patients have complained on the survey, which in previous incarnations included comments sections, about everything from “My roommate was dying all night and his breathing was very noisy” to “The hospital doesn’t have Splenda.” A nurse at the New Jersey hospital lacking Splenda said, “This somehow became the fault of the nurse and ended up being placed in her personnel file.” An Oregon critical-care nurse had to argue with a patient who believed he was being mistreated because he didn’t get enough pastrami on his sandwich (he had recently had quadruple-bypass surgery). “Many patients have unrealistic expectations for their care and their outcomes,” the nurse said.
The entire article is here.
Alexandra Robbins
The Atlantic
Originally published April 17, 2015
Here is an excerpt:
Patient-satisfaction surveys have their place. But the potential cost of the subjective scores are leading hospitals to steer focus away from patient health, messing with the highest stakes possible: people’s lives.
The vast majority of the thirty-two-question survey, known as HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) addresses nursing care. For example, in a section about nurses, the survey asks, “During this hospital stay, after you pressed the call button, how often did you get help as soon as you wanted it?”
This question is misleading because it doesn’t specify whether the help was medically necessary. Patients have complained on the survey, which in previous incarnations included comments sections, about everything from “My roommate was dying all night and his breathing was very noisy” to “The hospital doesn’t have Splenda.” A nurse at the New Jersey hospital lacking Splenda said, “This somehow became the fault of the nurse and ended up being placed in her personnel file.” An Oregon critical-care nurse had to argue with a patient who believed he was being mistreated because he didn’t get enough pastrami on his sandwich (he had recently had quadruple-bypass surgery). “Many patients have unrealistic expectations for their care and their outcomes,” the nurse said.
The entire article is here.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Physicians build less rapport with obese patients
By K.A. Gudzune, M.C. Beach, D.L. Roter, & L.A. Cooper
Obesity (Silver Spring). 2013 Mar 20. doi: 10.1002/oby.20384.
Abstract
Objective:
Physicians' negative attitudes towards patients with obesity are well documented. Whether or how these beliefs may affect patient-physician communication is unknown. We aimed to describe the relationship between patient BMI and physician communication behaviors (biomedical, psychosocial/lifestyle, and rapport building) during typical outpatient primary care visits.
Design and Methods:
Using audio-recorded outpatient encounters from 39 urban PCPs and 208 of their patients, we examined the frequency of communication behaviors using the Roter Interaction Analysis System. The independent variable was measured patient BMI and dependent variables were communication behaviors by the PCP within the biomedical, psychosocial/lifestyle, and rapport building domains. We performed a cross-sectional analysis using multilevel Poisson regression models to evaluate the association between BMI and physician communication.
Results:
PCPs demonstrated less emotional rapport with overweight and obese patients (IRR 0.65, 95%CI 0.48-0.88, p=0.01; IRR 0.69, 95%CI 0.58-0.82, p<0.01, respectively) than for normal weight patients. We found no differences in PCPs' biomedical or psychosocial/lifestyle communication by patient BMI.
Conclusions:
Our findings raise the concern that low levels of emotional rapport in primary care visits with overweight and obese patients may weaken the patient-physician relationship, diminish patients' adherence to recommendations, and decrease the effectiveness of behavior change counseling.
And, click here for a blog post on this article, with the excerpt below:
Are Doctors Nicer to Thinner Patients?
By TARA PARKER-POPE
The New York Times - Well Column
Originally published April 29, 2013
Here is an excerpt:
“When there is increased empathy by the doctor, patients are more likely to report they are satisfied with their care, and they are more likely to adhere to recommendations of physicians,” Dr. Gudzune said. “There is evidence to show that after visits with more empathy, patients have improved clinical outcomes, so patients with diabetes have better blood sugar control or cholesterol is better controlled.”
Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Yale-Griffin University Prevention Research Center, says that overweight patients often complain to him that doctors appear judgmental about their weight, at the expense of other health concerns.
“You come in with a headache, and the doctors say, ‘You really need to lose weight.’ You have a sore throat, and the doctor says, ‘You really need to lose weight,’ ” he said. “These patients feel like the doctor doesn’t help them and they insult them, and so they stop going.”
In dealing with patients who are overweight, Dr. Katz added, doctors often show the same biases and prejudices as the culture at large. The problem may be compounded by the fact that doctors are trained to deal with immediate medical problems that have specific solutions, like a pill to lower blood pressure or emergency treatment for a heart attack. But obesity is a far more complex problem that isn’t easy to solve, and that can be frustrating to doctors.
“When we can’t fix what is broken we tend to behave badly,” he said.
Obesity (Silver Spring). 2013 Mar 20. doi: 10.1002/oby.20384.
Abstract
Objective:
Physicians' negative attitudes towards patients with obesity are well documented. Whether or how these beliefs may affect patient-physician communication is unknown. We aimed to describe the relationship between patient BMI and physician communication behaviors (biomedical, psychosocial/lifestyle, and rapport building) during typical outpatient primary care visits.
Design and Methods:
Using audio-recorded outpatient encounters from 39 urban PCPs and 208 of their patients, we examined the frequency of communication behaviors using the Roter Interaction Analysis System. The independent variable was measured patient BMI and dependent variables were communication behaviors by the PCP within the biomedical, psychosocial/lifestyle, and rapport building domains. We performed a cross-sectional analysis using multilevel Poisson regression models to evaluate the association between BMI and physician communication.
Results:
PCPs demonstrated less emotional rapport with overweight and obese patients (IRR 0.65, 95%CI 0.48-0.88, p=0.01; IRR 0.69, 95%CI 0.58-0.82, p<0.01, respectively) than for normal weight patients. We found no differences in PCPs' biomedical or psychosocial/lifestyle communication by patient BMI.
Conclusions:
Our findings raise the concern that low levels of emotional rapport in primary care visits with overweight and obese patients may weaken the patient-physician relationship, diminish patients' adherence to recommendations, and decrease the effectiveness of behavior change counseling.
And, click here for a blog post on this article, with the excerpt below:
Are Doctors Nicer to Thinner Patients?
By TARA PARKER-POPE
The New York Times - Well Column
Originally published April 29, 2013
Here is an excerpt:
“When there is increased empathy by the doctor, patients are more likely to report they are satisfied with their care, and they are more likely to adhere to recommendations of physicians,” Dr. Gudzune said. “There is evidence to show that after visits with more empathy, patients have improved clinical outcomes, so patients with diabetes have better blood sugar control or cholesterol is better controlled.”
Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Yale-Griffin University Prevention Research Center, says that overweight patients often complain to him that doctors appear judgmental about their weight, at the expense of other health concerns.
“You come in with a headache, and the doctors say, ‘You really need to lose weight.’ You have a sore throat, and the doctor says, ‘You really need to lose weight,’ ” he said. “These patients feel like the doctor doesn’t help them and they insult them, and so they stop going.”
In dealing with patients who are overweight, Dr. Katz added, doctors often show the same biases and prejudices as the culture at large. The problem may be compounded by the fact that doctors are trained to deal with immediate medical problems that have specific solutions, like a pill to lower blood pressure or emergency treatment for a heart attack. But obesity is a far more complex problem that isn’t easy to solve, and that can be frustrating to doctors.
“When we can’t fix what is broken we tend to behave badly,” he said.
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Patients should decide what the end of life is like, study says
By Mary VacVean
The Los Angeles Times
Originally published March 20, 2013
Finding out what dying patients want and treating them accordingly leads to happier patients who are in less pain and who use fewer healthcare dollars, UCLA researchers said Tuesday.
“You can improve care while reducing costs by making sure that everything you do is centered on what the patients want, what his or her specific goals are and tailor a treatment plan to ensure we provide the specific care he or she wants,” Dr. Jonathan Bergman, a Robert Wood Johnson clinical scholar at UCLA, said in a statement.
Bergman and colleagues wrote an article advocating for patient-centered care at the end of life in the journal JAMA Surgery.
People who are dying often receive care that is poorly coordinated and not in line with the patient’s values or goals, the journal authors said. That should change, they said.
The entire article is here.
The Los Angeles Times
Originally published March 20, 2013
Finding out what dying patients want and treating them accordingly leads to happier patients who are in less pain and who use fewer healthcare dollars, UCLA researchers said Tuesday.
“You can improve care while reducing costs by making sure that everything you do is centered on what the patients want, what his or her specific goals are and tailor a treatment plan to ensure we provide the specific care he or she wants,” Dr. Jonathan Bergman, a Robert Wood Johnson clinical scholar at UCLA, said in a statement.
Bergman and colleagues wrote an article advocating for patient-centered care at the end of life in the journal JAMA Surgery.
People who are dying often receive care that is poorly coordinated and not in line with the patient’s values or goals, the journal authors said. That should change, they said.
The entire article is here.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Can Doctors Learn Empathy?
By Pauline W. Chen, MD
The New York Times - Well
Originally published June 21, 2012
Empathy has always been considered an essential component of compassionate care, and recent research has shown that its benefits go far beyond the exam room. Greater physician empathy has been associated with fewer medical errors, better patient outcomes and more satisfied patients. It also results in fewer malpractice claims and happier doctors.
The New York Times - Well
Originally published June 21, 2012
Empathy has always been considered an essential component of compassionate care, and recent research has shown that its benefits go far beyond the exam room. Greater physician empathy has been associated with fewer medical errors, better patient outcomes and more satisfied patients. It also results in fewer malpractice claims and happier doctors.
A growing number of professional accrediting and licensing agencies have taken these findings to heart, developing requirements that make empathy a core value and an absolute “learning objective” for all doctors. But even for the most enthusiastic supporters of such initiatives, the vexing question remains: Can people learn to be empathetic?
A new study reveals that they can.
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