Physician well-being: A powerful way to improve the patient experience.

Improving the patient experience—or the patientcenteredness of care—is a key focus of health care organizations. With a shift to reimbursement models that reward higher patient experience scores, increased competition for market share, and cost constraints emphasizing the importance of patient loyalty, many health care organizations consider optimizing the patient experience to be a key strategy for sustaining financial viability. A survey conducted by The Beryl Institute, which supports research on the patient experience, found that hospital executives ranked patient experience as a clear top priority, falling a close second behind quality and safety.1 According to the institute, engagement with employees, including physicians, is the most effective way to improve the patient experience, as more engaged, satisfied staffers provide better service and care to patients.2 Data on physician satisfaction support this supposition: Research has shown that physician career satisfaction closely correlates with patient satisfaction within a geographic region.3 Given the importance of physician satisfaction to the patient experience, it is concerning that dissatisfaction and burnout are on the rise among physicians. In a 2012 online poll of more than 24,000 physicians across the country, only 54 percent would choose medicine again as a career, down from 69 percent in 2011.4 Almost half of the more than 7,000 physicians responding to a recent online survey reported at least one symptom of burnout.5 Physician dissatisfaction and burnout have a profound negative effect on the patient experience of care. Physician leaders can take steps within their organizations to foster physician well-being, improving the care experience for physicians and patients while strengthening the sustainability of their organizations.