Improving quality of medical treatment and care: are surgeons’ working conditions and job satisfaction associated to patient satisfaction?

Abstract

This study demonstrates strong associations between surgeons' working conditions and patient satisfaction. Based on these findings, hospital managements should improve work organization, workload, and job resources to not only improve surgeons' job satisfaction but also quality of medical treatment and patient satisfaction in Surgery departments.

Work stress, burnout, and perceived quality of care: a cross-sectional study among hospital pediatricians

“…Our results are in line with similar findings in German surgeons, where enhanced psychosocial work stress was linked to lower quality of care [12,8]. The observed associations contribute to increasing evidence of adverse work conditions in the hospital and their impact on medical performance and suboptimal care, which results in reduced patient safety [12].…”

“…We suggest system-based, i.e., organizational and work-design interventions that address the reciprocity of effort and reward in the workplace. This is of particular interest within the clinical context, where high job demands and detrimental working conditions lead to increasing resignation in physicians and jeopardize patient safety [8,24,11,12]. This could be achieved through reducing effort and work demands, while simultaneously improving reward in the hospital workplace.…”

“…Growing evidence suggests that the mental well-being and efficacy of physicians are closely related to the characteristics of their work environment [10]. Physician distress and psychiatric disorders were linked to poor quality of health care, including medical errors, hospital-acquired infections, and unsatisfied patients [8,15,24,5,12]. Particular focus has been put upon physician burnout due to its pervasiveness and detrimental effects on physician health as well as productivity [17,22,10].…”

Benchmarking working conditions for health and safety in the frontline healthcare industry: Perspectives from Australia and Malaysia

“…Targeted interventions specific for the healthcare context may be better able to protect worker psychological health and the benefit of supporting healthcare staff safety is two‐fold, because the notion that the health of the worker is related to the well‐being of their patients has already been established (Halbeslben et al, ; Hall et al, ; Mache et al., ; Seki & Yamazaki, ). Numerous intervention strategies and job redesign approaches have been raised (e.g., Bodenheimer & Sinsky, ), including; more efficient use of team members for administration; expanding roles in multi‐disciplinary teams to permit certain professions to more efficiently distribute responsibilities and; co‐location of multi‐disciplinary team members to increase efficiency.…”

“…Research on healthcare workers has demonstrated that there is a relationship between excessive job demands, limited resources and adverse health outcomes (Gilles, Burnand, & Peytremann‐Bridevaux, ; Lavoie‐Tremblay, Trépanier, Fernet, & Bonneville‐Roussy, ). The consequences of poor working conditions are not only limited to the health of workers, as links can be drawn between adverse health outcomes in healthcare professionals and their provision of quality care in terms of patient safety incidents (Halbeslben, Wakefield, Wakefield & Cooper, 2008; Hall, Johnson, Tsipa & O'Connor, ), and the likelihood of near‐miss errors (Seki & Yamazaki, ) and even the job satisfaction of surgeons is related to patient satisfaction (Mache, Vitzthum, Klapp, & Groneberg, ). All of these working conditions and job factors are inter‐linked, and evidence suggests that these can be explained by the Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC) model.…”