Physician job satisfaction and quality of care among hospital employed physicians in Japan.
BACKGROUND
Physician job satisfaction is reportedly associated with interpersonal quality of care, such as patient satisfaction, but its association with technical quality of care, as determined by whether patients are offered recommended services, is unknown.


OBJECTIVE
We explored whether the job satisfaction of hospital-employed physicians in Japan is associated with the technical quality of care, with an emphasis on process qualities as measured by quality indicators.


METHODS
Cross-sectional study linking data from physician surveys with data abstracted from outpatient charts.


METHODS
A total of 53 physicians working at 13 hospitals in Japan participated. Medical records covering 568 patients were reviewed.


METHODS
Disease-specific indicators related to the care of patients with hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and asthma, as well as disease-independent measures of the process of care were abstracted. We analyzed the association between the quality of care score for individual physicians, which is defined as the percentage of quality indicators satisfied among the total for which their patients were eligible, and physician job satisfaction, which was measured by a validated scale.


RESULTS
No statistically significant association between physician job satisfaction and quality of care was observed. A 1-standard deviation (SD) increment in the physician job satisfaction scale was associated with an increase of only 0.3% for overall quality (P = 0.85), -3.0% for hypertension (P = 0.22), 2.5% for type 2 diabetes (P = 0.44), 8.0% for asthma (P = 0.21), and -0.4% for cross-cutting care (P = 0.76).


CONCLUSIONS
Contrary to the positive association reported between physician job satisfaction and high quality of interpersonal care, no association was seen between physician job satisfaction and the technical quality of care.
Utsugi-Ozaki
Makiko
M
Department of Epidemiology and Healthcare Research, Graduate School of Public Health and Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan. ozaki@pbh.med.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Bito
Seiji
S
Matsumura
Shinji
S
Hayashino
Yasuaki
Y
Fukuhara
Shunichi
S
D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D020445:Hospitalists / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D008485:Medical Audit; D008875:Middle Aged; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care