Generational and Tenure Impacts on Physician Satisfaction Surveys

  

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By Nicholas Dowd, Senior Consultant (HCAHPs and other Surveys), HealthStream

In an upcoming HealthStream Webinar, I will be introducing Dr. Leonard Feld the Chief Medical Officer of Levine Children’s Hospital – part of the Carolinas Healthcare System in Charlotte, North Carolina. Dr. Feld will be discussing generational differences among physicians. Depending upon whether physicians are “Baby Boomers” or “Generation X” or “Generation Y” or some other generational designation, their attitudes about their work and profession can differ markedly.

Tenure Definitely Affects Physician Satisfaction

Our upcoming presentation has been shaped, in part, by a study completed across the HealthStream physician database. Among other findings, this study revealed the items most highly correlated to overall physician satisfaction by tenure (i.e.) the number of years a physician has been affiliated with a particular hospital. As an example and as one might expect, physicians with tenure < 2 years have a different viewpoint than those of > 10 years tenure, as do those in the 2 to 5 year range and the 6 to 10 year range.

What Surveys Tell Us About Tenure and Physician Satisfaction

To illustrate this, for example, survey items that are most highly correlated to the overall satisfaction of physicians of less than 2 years tenure are:

• Consistent quality across all shifts and floors
• Overall satisfaction with nursing
• Safe, error-free care
• Skill of Administration
• Teamwork with nurses and other direct patient care staff

In contrast, survey items most highly correlated to the overall satisfaction of physicians of more than 10 years tenure are:

• Skill of Administration
• Communication with Administration
• Responsiveness of Administration
• Consistent quality across all shifts and floors
• Involvement in decision-making at the hospital

One may conclude from this example that physicians with less tenure ( < 2 years) have a wider range of issues that are most important to them, including quality interaction with nursing staff, teamwork with other care providers and the provision of safe, error-free care.

Whereas, longer-tenured physicians tend to focus more strongly on the relationship with Administration, the effectiveness of communication and responsiveness on the part of hospital leaders, the extent to which they are included in the strategic decision-making of the hospital – as well as consistent quality of care across the hospital.

In fact, when looking at physician groups by tenure (< 2 years; 2-5 years; 6-10 years; > 10 years), as their tenures increase, focus on the quality of communication with Administration and physician involvement in hospital decision-making also increases in importance to them.

Another interesting dimension associated with the least-tenured group is the list of survey items for which they are least positive. Physicians of < 2 years tenure score the following survey items the lowest:

• Scheduling surgery
• Scheduling diagnostic tests
• Admission and discharge processes
• Efficiency of hospital operations

Importance of Issues Varies with Physician Tenure

In other words, newer physicians find process-related functions, ease of use and scheduling items to be their biggest dissatisfiers. Scores for longer-tenured physicians moderate for many process items since they are likely more well-acquainted with how processes work within the hospital. They may also, by virtue of seniority, have more ability to influence such processes.

With this as prelude, scores for Overall Satisfaction by tenure drop between the < 2 year group and the 2-5 year group; then, decline again slightly between 2-5 years and 6-10 years. The scores then rebound to the point where physicians in the > 10 year group have the highest Overall Satisfaction scores.

Using a 4-point scale, Very Satisfied, Satisfied, Dissatisfied and Very Dissatisfied, the following are mean scores by group:

Much more information will be available in Dr. Feld’s upcoming Webinar on September 21, 2012.

Learn more and register here.

Learn more about HealthStream’s Physician Insights survey here.