Effects of physician engagement and physician alignment on patient satisfaction, hospital mortality, and hospital readmission rates
Abstract
Physicians are an integral part of the healthcare system. Many researchers have studied physician satisfaction over time while others have studied what factors lead to satisfaction. A gap exists in the published literature in our understanding of whether physician satisfaction affects patient satisfaction and the quality of their care. The goal of this study was to develop a deeper understanding of the effect of physician satisfaction on key metrics of patient satisfaction and quality of care by addressing the following key questions: Is there a relationship between physician engagement and patient satisfaction? physician engagement and hospital mortality rates? physician engagement and readmission rates? Is there a relationship between physician alignment and patient satisfaction? physician alignment and hospital mortality rates? physician alignment and hospital readmission rates? Data was obtained from a variety of sources: a) Midwest and Associates provided physician satisfaction data for clients with whom they work in the focused areas of Physician Engagement and Physician Alignment. Physician Engagement means the extent to which physicians are attached to their perceived environment. Physician Alignment means the extent of the physicians' feeling of connection to or partnership with a hospital (feelings of hospital-administration partnership). b) patient satisfaction, mortality, and readmissions data were obtained from Medicare's publicly available web-site called Hospital Compare (www.hospitalcompare.com); c) demographic data was obtained from a variety of public sites. Data was blinded by Midwest to insure that client anonymity was protected. Physician engagement correlated positively with patient satisfaction measures. This was found not only in the overall question of patient satisfaction but also in subsections of the patient satisfaction measures. Physician alignment correlated positively with patient satisfaction only in medium-size hospitals. This study was unable to test for relationships between physician engagement and alignment and quality-of-care metrics because of inadequacy of data obtained in this sampling. This study's findings have implications for affecting patient satisfaction by focusing on physician engagement, alignment, and patient satisfaction. Future studies should refocus on the quality-of-care metrics as well as on those factors that can drive physician engagement, thereby affecting patient satisfaction.
Subject Area
Public health|Health care management
Recommended Citation
Schwartz, Roberta Levy, "Effects of physician engagement and physician alignment on patient satisfaction, hospital mortality, and hospital readmission rates" (2014). Texas Medical Center Dissertations (via ProQuest). AAI3665049.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/dissertations/AAI3665049