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Physician Burnout and Patient Satisfaction with Consultation in Primary Health Care Settings: Evidence of Relationships from a one-with-many Design

Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings volume 19, pages 401–410 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

Physician burnout, as a prolonged response to chronic emotional and interpersonal stressors on the job, has been associated with suboptimal patient care and deterioration in the patient–provider relationship. Although prior studies have identified a range of factors associated with decreased patient satisfaction, most have been conducted in tertiary care settings, with staff burnout examined at the hospital unit-level. To examine the impact of physician burnout on patient satisfaction from consultation in the primary care setting, a cross-sectional survey was conducted in Western Greece. Using a one-with-many design, 30 physicians and 300 of their patients, randomly selected, responded to the survey. Results showed that patient satisfaction correlated significantly with physician emotional exhaustion (r = −.636, p < .01) and physician depersonalization (r = −.541, p < .01). Mixed-effects multilevel models indicated that 34.4% of total variation in patients’ satisfaction occurred at the physician level, after adjustment for patients’ characteristics. Moreover, physician emotional exhaustion and depersonalization remained significant factors associated with patient satisfaction with consultation, after controlling for patient and physician characteristics. Patients of physicians with high-exhaustion and high-depersonalization had significantly lower satisfaction scores, compared with patients of physicians with low-exhaustion and low-depersonalization, respectively. Future studies need to explore the mechanisms by which physician burnout affects patient satisfaction.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the helpful advice and support offered by Professor Debra Roter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Panteion University, 136 Syngrou Avenue, 176 71, Athens, Greece

    Fotios Anagnostopoulos

  2. Chalandritsa Health Center, Patras, Greece

    Evangelos Liolios

  3. Eginition Hospital, University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    George Persefonis

  4. College of Human and Health Sciences, Swansea University, Swansea, SA2 8PP, UK

    Julie Slater

  5. Department of Psychology, University of Crete, Crete, Greece

    Kostas Kafetsios

  6. Faculty of Social Sciences, Hellenic Open University, Patras, Greece

    Dimitris Niakas

Authors
  1. Fotios Anagnostopoulos
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  2. Evangelos Liolios
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  3. George Persefonis
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  4. Julie Slater
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  5. Kostas Kafetsios
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  6. Dimitris Niakas
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Correspondence to Fotios Anagnostopoulos.

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Anagnostopoulos, F., Liolios, E., Persefonis, G. et al. Physician Burnout and Patient Satisfaction with Consultation in Primary Health Care Settings: Evidence of Relationships from a one-with-many Design. J Clin Psychol Med Settings 19, 401–410 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-011-9278-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-011-9278-8

Keywords

  • Primary care
  • Physician burnout
  • Patient satisfaction
  • Mixed-effects
  • Multilevel analysis