Patient satisfaction and gender composition of physicians - a cross-sectional study of community health services in Hubei, China

Abstract

BackgroundPatient satisfaction is associated with both individual (patients and health workers) and organizational (health facilities) characteristics. This study aimed to establish a link between patient satisfaction and gender composition of physicians in community health service (CHS) organizations.MethodsParticipants were selected through multistage stratified random sampling: 36 CHS centers were selected from six municipalities in Hubei, China. All physicians on duty and patients visiting the CHS during the study period (from April to October in 2015) were invited to participate in this study: 324 physicians and 865 patients completed a questionnaire survey. Multilevel linear regression analyses were performed to determine the associations of patient satisfaction (scored from 1 to 5) with patient characteristics (gender, age, education, income, medical expense, frequency of visits to the CHS) and organizational features of the CHS (sex ratio of physicians, and gender differences of physicians in education and job satisfaction).ResultsOlder patients and those with a higher medical bill had a lower degree of satisfaction (p < 0.05). At the organizational level: a higher proportion of male physicians weakened the negative association between patient age and patient satisfaction (p < 0.05); a larger gap in university qualifications between male and female physicians exacerbated the negative association between patient age and patient satisfaction (p < 0.05).ConclusionsThe gender composition of physicians in CHSs is associated with patient satisfaction in the Chinese context: a larger gap (in number and qualifications) between male and female physicians is associated with higher patient satisfaction. Further studies are needed to explore the cultural roots of such an association.

Patient Satisfaction with Rural Medical Services: A Cross-Sectional Survey in 11 Western Provinces in China

“…Enakshi et al found that 60.2% of patients were unsatisfied with the cost of rural healthcare in Southern India [33]. Consistently with earlier studies [16,18,27,42,43,44], our study indicates that a low satisfaction with medical expenses would significantly result in low patients’ overall satisfaction with rural medical services. The hospital and treatment costs for inpatients and outpatients have been rising both in urban and rural areas of China.…”

“…According to the China Health Statistical Yearbook 2018, the average outpatient service expense each time, among all hospitals in China, increased from 166.8 Yuan in 2010 to 257.0 Yuan in 2017, and the average inpatient service expense per capita among all hospitals in China increased from 6193.9 Yuan in 2010 to 8890.7 Yuan in 2017 [45]. Unreasonable and excessive medical services still exist in China, and despite the rapid improvement of health insurance systems, the out-of-pocket payments still impose a great financial challenge to patients [18], especially for patients living in rural areas where the income level of residents is much lower than their counterparts in urban areas. Therefore, the affordability of medical services remains challenging for rural residents.…”

“…The potential explanations include that older patients might have a lower expectation of medical services and that the attitudes of doctors might be better toward the older patients [18]. However, the patient’s age has also been shown to not be a significant factor [15,24,25,26,27,36,37,46,50], and some studies have shown younger patients to have a higher satisfaction [18,51]. The second patient-related predictor was income.…”

“…A systematic review has summarized the domains used for patient satisfaction measurement in Saudi Arabia, which includes communication attributes, relational conduct, technical skill, personal qualities, availability, and accessibility [12]. Meanwhile, many empirical studies have been conducted to measure patient satisfaction in different countries, such as England [13], Pakistan [14,15], China [16,17,18,19,20], Germany [21], Saudi Arabia [22], the U.S. [23], Canada [24], Italy [25], and South Africa [26]. Among these studies, multifarious measures were employed and numerous determinants of patient satisfaction were identified.…”

Sino-Australian University Partnership in Health Management Education

“…This is evidenced by 11 monographs/textbooks and an impressive 173 peer-reviewed publications produced by the CHP staff about the Chinese health system and health reforms published in both English and the Chinese language. Topics have included patient satisfaction (29)(30)(31), medications policy and practice (32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40), patient safety and organizational safety culture (41,42), health reform (35,(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50), health insurance (50)(51)(52), emergency response (53)(54)(55)(56), and human resource management (3).…”