Abstract
The aim of this study was to assess whether burnout and empathy levels among general practitioners (GPs) might influence prescribing performance assessed using pharmaceutical prescription quality standard indicators. Cross-sectional descriptive study of 108 GPs from 22 primary care centers in Lleida, Spain, and of centralized data corresponding to 183 600 patients under their care. The study was conducted between May and July 2014. Burnout and empathy were measured using the Spanish versions of the Maslach Burnout Inventory and the Jefferson Scale for Physician Empathy, and prescribing quality was measured using the Catalan Pharmaceutical Prescription Quality Standard (EQPF). Normal distribution of scores was verified using the Chi-square and Kolmogorov-Smirnov-Lilliefors tests. The effect of each of the variables was evaluated using crude odds ratios. Older GPs scored significantly higher in the EQPF (P < 0.05). High empathy scores were positively associated with high EQPF scores. GPs with low burnout also performed better in the EQPF. More empathic, less burned-out, older GPs showed better prescribing performance according to quality indicators. However, further studies are needed to evaluate other factors influencing prescribing habits. The promotion of communication skills may increase empathy and reduce burnout, thus benefiting patients.
Highlights
Quality standards are being increasingly used to analyze the functioning of different health care services, including primary care (Choi, 2016)
The aim of this study was to assess whether burnout and empathy levels among general practitioners (GPs) might influence prescribing performance assessed using pharmaceutical prescription quality standard indicators
Main Outcome Measures: Burnout and empathy were measured using the Spanish versions of the Maslach Burnout Inventory and the Jefferson Scale for Physician Empathy, and prescribing quality was measured using the Catalan Pharmaceutical Prescription Quality Standard (EQPF)
Summary
Quality standards are being increasingly used to analyze the functioning of different health care services, including primary care (Choi, 2016). Our group has undertaken several studies to analyze the impact of burnout and empathy among general practitioners (GPs) and nurses on different aspects of primary care practice (Yuguero et al, 2017a). This relation between empathy and burnout has been described in other countries (Sun et al, 2017; Pedersen et al, 2018) and in other health care groups among emergency professionals (Yuguero et al, 2017a), psychiatrists (Bentley et al, 2018) and intensive care professionals (van Mol et al, 2015). We take into account that in our country, many training activities for younger people are financed by the pharmaceutical industry and a prescription may be expected in exchange
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