• Makiko Utsugi-Ozaki, Seiji Bito, Shinji Matsumura, Yasuaki Hayashino, Shunichi Fukuhara, and MEMO-J Study Group.
• Department of Epidemiology and Healthcare Research, Graduate School of Public Health and Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan. ozaki@pbh.med.kyoto-u.ac.jp
• J Gen Intern Med. 2009 Mar 1; 24 (3): 387392387-92.

BackgroundPhysician job satisfaction is reportedly associated with interpersonal quality of care, such as patient satisfaction, but its association with technical quality of care, as determined by whether patients are offered recommended services, is unknown.ObjectiveWe explored whether the job satisfaction of hospital-employed physicians in Japan is associated with the technical quality of care, with an emphasis on process qualities as measured by quality indicators.DesignCross-sectional study linking data from physician surveys with data abstracted from outpatient charts.ParticipantsA total of 53 physicians working at 13 hospitals in Japan participated. Medical records covering 568 patients were reviewed.MeasurementsDisease-specific indicators related to the care of patients with hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and asthma, as well as disease-independent measures of the process of care were abstracted. We analyzed the association between the quality of care score for individual physicians, which is defined as the percentage of quality indicators satisfied among the total for which their patients were eligible, and physician job satisfaction, which was measured by a validated scale.ResultsNo statistically significant association between physician job satisfaction and quality of care was observed. A 1-standard deviation (SD) increment in the physician job satisfaction scale was associated with an increase of only 0.3% for overall quality (P = 0.85), -3.0% for hypertension (P = 0.22), 2.5% for type 2 diabetes (P = 0.44), 8.0% for asthma (P = 0.21), and -0.4% for cross-cutting care (P = 0.76).ConclusionContrary to the positive association reported between physician job satisfaction and high quality of interpersonal care, no association was seen between physician job satisfaction and the technical quality of care.

16 keywords...

hide…