Managed Care and Provider Satisfaction in Mental Health Settings

Abstract

We assess the satisfaction of mental health providers using four dimensions from the medical practice literature--degree of autonomy, relationship with patients, compensation, and administrative burden--and extend current work on professional satisfaction to include frontline service providers rather than only psychiatrists or other physicians. In contrast to results reported for primary care settings, we find that the impact of managed care on satisfaction is minimal for the mental health providers in our study of a Medicaid capitation demonstration in the southeastern US. Instead, variables relevant to everyday working conditions have an important effect on job satisfaction.

Factors associated with satisfaction at work in Psychosocial Care Centers

“…The work burden was inversely associated with satisfaction, as identified in other studies ( 8 , 11 , 13 - 14 , 20 ) . The burden may be related to service management, in the form of an insufficient number of workers to provide user care within the territory, as well as to work organization difficulties.…”

“…Consequently, the workers may not have experienced a range of situations to permit an assessment, like workers with longer experience at CAPS. These evidences support the findings that associated five to ten years of work experience in Mental Health with lower satisfaction levels ( 13 ) ; and differ from a study in the United Kingdom that associated five or more years of work with higher satisfaction levels ( 11 ) .…”

“…Higher-education professions in mental health, with different work processes, can articulate them and organize them in a specific manner ( 2 ) . The results support the identification of the association between satisfaction and autonomy in community health service work in the United Kingdom and the USA ( 8 - 9 , 11 ) but, nevertheless, did not identify an association with profession/function ( 11 ) and a difference in satisfaction between physicians and nurses ( 19 ) .…”

“…The factors related to greater satisfaction at work in community mental health services include: greater autonomy ( 8 - 9 ) , observation of rapid changes at the service, benefits of teamwork, keeping the clients outside the hospital ( 9 ) and organizational support ( 10 ) . And lesser satisfaction has been associated with administrative tasks and a large number of cases ( 11 ) , inappropriate physical structure, lack of human and material resources ( 12 - 13 ) , devaluation in the workplace ( 8 ) and greater burden at work ( 8 , 13 - 14 ) .…”

The Gap Between Physicians and the Public in Satisfaction with the National Health Insurance System in Korea

“…First, the satisfaction of physicians is related to the satisfaction of their patients as well as to the quality of healthcare services (9-11, 13, 15, 18). In this context, the satisfaction of physicians may directly affect the health of the public.…”