title: Physician Professional Satisfaction and Area of Clinical Practice: Evidence from an Integrated Health Care Delivery System.
abstract: For health care reform to succeed, health care systems need a professionally satisfied primary care workforce. Evidence suggests that primary care physicians are less satisfied than those in other medical specialties.
  
  
  
  To assess three domains of physician satisfaction by area of clinical practice among physicians practicing in an established integrated health system.
  
  
  
  Cross-sectional online survey of all Southern California Permanente Medical Group (SCPMG) partner and associate physicians (N = 1034) who were primarily providing clinic-based care in 1 of 4 geographically and operationally distinct Kaiser Permanente Southern California Medical Centers.
  
  
  
  Primary measure was satisfaction with one's day-to-day professional life as a physician. Secondary measures were satisfaction with quality of care and income.
  
  
  
  Of the 636 physicians responding to the survey (61.5% response rate), on average, 8 in 10 SCPMG physicians reported satisfaction with their day-to-day professional life as a physician. Primary care physicians were only minimally less likely to report being satisfied (difference of 8.2-9.5 percentage points; p < 0.05) than were other physicians. Nearly all physicians (98.2%) were satisfied with the quality of care they are able to provide. Roughly 8 in 10 physicians reported satisfaction with their income. No differences were found between primary care physicians and those in other clinical practice areas regarding satisfaction with quality of care or income.
  
  
  
  It is possible to create practice settings, such as SCPMG, in which most physicians, including those in primary care, experience high levels of professional satisfaction.
authors.affiliation: Doctoral Fellow at the Pardee RAND Graduate School in Santa Monica, an Assistant Policy Analyst for RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, and a Senior Manager for Global Health Economics for Amgen, Inc, in Thousand Oaks, CA. jcaloyer@rand.org.
authors.forename: John P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Caloyeras
authors.affiliation: Medical Director of Quality and Clinical Analysis for the Southern California Permanente Medical Group in Pasadena, CA. michael.h.kanter@kp.org.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kanter
authors.affiliation: Senior Consultant for the Southern California Permanente Medical Group in Pasadena, CA. nicole.r.ives@kp.org.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ives
authors.affiliation: Senior Consultant for the Southern California Permanente Medical Group in Pasadena, CA. chong.y.kim@kp.org.
authors.forename: Chong Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, an Emergency Physician at San Francisco General Hospital, and a Natural Scientist for the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica. hemal.kanzaria@ucsf.edu.
authors.forename: Hemal K
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Kanzaria
authors.affiliation: Senior Behavioral Scientist for the RAND Corporation and a Professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School in Santa Monica, CA. berry@rand.org.
authors.forename: Sandra H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Berry
authors.affiliation: Distinguished Chair in Health Care Services for the RAND Corporation, a Professor at the Pardee RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, a Professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine and at the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles. brook@rand.org.
authors.forename: Robert H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Brook
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D019033:Delivery of Health Care, Integrated; D005260:Female; D018166:Health Care Reform; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires