A survey of health care needs of physicians

Abstract

BackgroundThe healthcare needs of physician are not well studied.MethodsWe surveyed physicians attending a large primary care conference about their access and perceived barriers to receiving healthcare services.ResultsResponse rate was 46 % (270/592). The majority were trained in family medicine. The age category of above 60 years was the most common (39 %) and 46 % were women. Important difficulty in accessing healthcare services was reported by 39 % of physicians and the majority (61 %) reported reverting to self-diagnosis and self-treatment. Female physicians reported more difficulties than male physicians (p < 0.001 for difficulty in securing access and p = 0.02 for self-diagnosis and treatment). The barriers cited were finding time for healthcare, concern about confidentiality, and lack of encouragement by employer. Respondents reported experiencing a career threatening illness themselves (20 %) or in a colleague (81 %). Forty-two percent experienced being concerned about a colleague being able to safely practice due to illness. Participants ranked substance abuse as the most common illnesses affecting a physician’s ability to practice followed by psychiatric disorders, heart disease, neurological disorders and cancer.ConclusionsPhysicians face important barriers to accessing healthcare services. Female physicians report worse access. The identified barriers are modifiable. This survey calls for efforts to improve physicians’ health that require collaboration among physicians, employers and policymakers.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-016-1728-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Assessment of Physicians' Health Care Needs: Is There a Link With Quality of Care in Saudi Arabia?

“…These all suggest that there would be a greater effect on the quality of services provided by those physicians, as those barriers would, in general, be likely to affect a physician's ability to provide quality care and achieve high levels of patient satisfaction. These results also similar to other study results (13). There is an urgent need for employers and policy makers to make significant changes and to increase physicians' willingness to consider their own health needs.…”

“…Difficulties in finding the time for health care were most common among those who worked more than 60 hours per week. These results support the findings of another study, which also found that those who work more than 60 hours per week were most likely to resort to selfdiagnosis/self-treatment and were most likely to have difficulties in finding the time for their own health care needs (13). These results were not unexpected, as it is clear that those who work longer hours will have less time available for seeking health care, and will, therefore, resort to self-diagnosis or self-treatment.…”

“…Moreover Table 1 clearly indicates that career-threatening illnesses are not a significant problem (16%). Nevertheless, 54.4% of participants reported having a colleague with a career-threatening illness, and this figure matches the results of the other study (13). Fiftysix percent of our study participants have needed to refer an ill colleague, and this result supported our belief that, as a result of the barriers to accessing care, the majority of physicians who become patients are referred by one of their colleagues.…”

“…These finding correspond to those of another study (4,12). When the main survey questions were grouped by gender and the number of hours worked per week, the results, which are shown in Table 3, indicate that female physicians reported having more difficulties in accessing health care than their male counterparts; this gender difference was also apparent in another study (13). In this regard, it is interesting to note that the emotional behaviours of female physicians concerning their patients may have a greater effect on their ability to access health care than those of their male colleagues.…”

“…The sample was obtained using a non-random convenience sampling technique. With regard to the study tool, a literature review revealed that a validated survey addressing the health care needs of physicians or other similar professional groups already existed (4,13). The survey was distributed to physicians attending continuing medical education conferences in various cities in Saudi Arabia over a sixmonth period, from July 2016 to December 2016.…”