Assessment of the Relationship Between an Adverse Impact of Work on Physicians’ Personal Relationships and Unsolicited Patient Complaints

Abstract

ObjectiveTo evaluate the relationship between an adverse impact of work on physicians’ personal relationships and unsolicited patient complaints about physician behavior — a well-established indicator of patient care quality. Participants and MethodsWe paired data from a physician wellness survey collected in April and May 2013 with longitudinal unsolicited patient complaint data collected independently from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2016. Unsolicited patient complaints were used to calculate the Patient Advocacy Reporting System (PARS) score, an established predictor of clinical outcomes and malpractice suits. The primary outcome was PARS score tercile. Ordinal logistic regression mixed effects models were used to assess the association between the impact of work on a physician’s personal relationships and PARS scores. ResultsOf 2384 physicians eligible to participate, 831 (34.9%) returned surveys including 429 (51.6%) who consented for their survey responses to be linked to independent data and had associated PARS scores. In a multivariate model adjusting for gender and specialty category, each 1-point higher impact of work on personal relationships score (0-10 scale; higher score unfavorable) was associated with a 19% greater odds of being in the next higher PARS score tercile of unsolicited patient complaints (odds ratio, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.07-1.33) during the subsequent 4-year study period. ConclusionAn adverse impact of work on physicians’ personal relationships is associated with independently assessed, unsolicited patient complaints. Organizational efforts to mitigate an adverse impact of work on physicians’ personal relationships are warranted as part of efforts to improve the quality of patient experience and malpractice risk.