Environmental Market Factors Associated with Physician Career Satisfaction

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-2012

Publication Title

Journal of Healthcare Management

Volume

57

Issue

5

First page number:

307

Last page number:

324

Abstract

Previous research has found that physician career satisfaction is declining, but no study has examined the relationship between market factors and physician career satisfaction. Using a theoretical framework, we examined how various aspects of the market environment (e.g., munificence, dynamism, complexity) are related to overall career satisfaction. Nationally representative data from the 2008 Health Tracking Physician Survey were combined with environmental market variables from the 2008 Area Resource File. After controlling for physician and practice characteristics, at least one variable each representing munificence, dynamism, and complexity was associated with satisfaction. An increase in the market number of primary care physicians per capita was positively associated with physician career satisfaction (OR = 2.11, 95% CI: 1.13 to 3.9) whereas an increase in the number of specialists per capita was negatively associated with physician satisfaction (OR = 0.68, 95% CI: 0.48 to 0.97). Moreover, an increase in poverty rates was negatively associated with physician career satisfaction (OR = 0.95, 95% CI: 0.91 to 1.01). Lastly, physicians practicing in states with a malpractice crisis (OR = 0.81, 95% CI: 0.68 to 0.96) and/or those who perceived high competition in their markets (OR = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.61 to 0.95) had lower odds of being satisfied. A better understanding of an organization's environment could assist healthcare managers in shaping their policies and strategies to increase physician satisfaction.

Keywords

Burnout; Professional/etiology; Burnout; Professional/prevention & control; Burnout; Professional/psychology; Burnout (Psychology); Cross-Sectional Studies; Delivery of Health Care/economics; Delivery of Health Care/organization & administration; Delivery of Health Care/trends; Female; Humans; Interprofessional Relations; Job Satisfaction; Male; Malpractice/economics; Malpractice/legislation & jurisprudence; Malpractice/trends; Organizational Culture; Physicians – Job satisfaction; Physicians/classification; Physicians/economics; Physicians/psychology; Physicians; Primary Care/economics; Physicians; Primary Care/supply & distribution; Physicians; Primary Care/trends; Primary care (Medicine); Reimbursement Mechanisms/trends; Specialization/economics; Specialization/statistics & numerical data; Specialization/trends; United States

Disciplines

Health and Medical Administration | Primary Care | Work, Economy and Organizations

Language

English

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the item. Publisher policy does not allow archiving the final published version. If a post-print (author's peer-reviewed manuscript) is allowed and available, or publisher policy changes, the item will be deposited.


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