Career satisfaction of physicians employed by health systems

Abstract

Background: Higher career satisfaction has been shown to result in better patient outcomes, higher patient satisfaction and less turnover among physicians. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between physician employment and career satisfaction.

Methods: Data from the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) 2008 Health Tracking Physician Survey was used in the study. The study is a cross sectional, quantitative study of the relationship between physician employment and career satisfaction. A total of 4,720 respondents responded to the survey, with a weighted response rate of 61.9%. An ordinal logistic regression was used to examine the study relationships while; controlling for other physician and practice characteristics. Following the main analysis, a subgroup analysis was used to assess whether the relationship between employment and career satisfaction differed by gender and compensation arrangement (i.e. fixed salary versus incentive based).

Results: The study found no significant association between employment and career satisfaction. When controlling for physician characteristics, only length of time in practice was significantly associated with career satisfaction. The study found no significant association between employment and career satisfaction when comparing physicians by gender. The study found no significant association between employment and career satisfaction when comparing physicians that were on a fixed salary and those that had an incentive based compensation arrangement.

Conclusions: The study found no association between employment and career satisfaction. The null/nonsignificant results at least suggest that employment of physicians may not result in lower levels of satisfaction.