December 14, 2021
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Lin does not report any relevant financial information. Linzer reports that he has received research and training support from the ABIM Foundation, ACP, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, AMA, Hennepin Healthcare and / or the Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute, Institute for Healthcare Improvement and NIH. He is also a consultant for Harvard University.
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The researchers identified four characteristics that are likely to increase a doctor’s confidence in their organization.
“Trust is intrinsic and critical to the healthcare workplace. Healthcare workers need to be confident that their workplace will take care of them, keep them safe and provide a work environment in which they can provide high quality care to their patients. ” Mark Linzer, MD, a doctor from Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, said Healio Primary Care.
Reference: Linzer M, et al. Ann Fam. Med. 2021; doi: 10.1370 / afm.2732.
Linzer and colleagues conducted an analysis of the Healthy Work Place Study, which was a randomized study of workplace interventions to improve working conditions in 34 primary care clinics in the Midwest and Eastern United States.
“Previous analyzes of data from the” Healthy Workplace “study have shown that clinicians’ increasing trust in the organization over time is accompanied by a two-fold lower likelihood of leaving the organization,” said Linzer.
For the current analysis, the researchers looked at data from 162 clinicians, 55 of whom had patients who trusted them very much.
The results, published in Annals of Family Medicine, showed four characteristics associated with doctor and patient confidence: emphasis on quality (OR = 4.95; 95% CI, 2.02-12.15); Emphasis on communication between doctors, nurses and electronic information systems (OR = 3.21; 95% CI 1.33-7.78); Cohesion among clinicians (OR = 2.29; 95% CI 1.25-4.2); and agreement between clinicians and executives across the scores (OR = 1.86; 95% CI 1.23-2.81).
“The results weren’t too surprising, although we didn’t know which aspects of the organizational culture could be related to trust,” said Linzer. “It turned out that all aspects of corporate culture that we measured did. This provides strong support for engaging clinicians in discussions about corporate culture and moving forward together to help shape the structure and components of the culture in which care is provided. “
The data was collected before the COVID-19 pandemic and it was unclear whether the pandemic would affect the study results, said Linzer.
“Since the results mainly include relationships between cultural variables (values, quality, communication, cohesion) and outcomes (trust), we do not know that the pandemic would have significantly changed these relationships,” he said. “However, the 34% prevalence of clinicians in the ‘high zone’ (where trust thrives, with high trust in the organization of clinicians with very trusting patients) may have changed after the experience of the last 20 months. In which direction, however, we cannot say. “
In a related editorial Kenneth W. Lin, MD, MPH, a doctor at Georgetown University Medical Center, admitted that “trust in medicine is at a low level” and suggested that organizations using results from Linzer and colleagues “could have happier clinicians and happier patients” .
References
Lin KW. Ann Fam. Med. 2021; doi.org/10.1370/afm.2752.
Linzer M. et al. Ann Fam. Med. 2021; doi: 10.1370 / afm.2732.
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Shivaraj Nagalli, MD, FACP
This is an interesting study that showed ways to improve trust between clinicians and their organizations.
Lack of communication with care providers and making decisions without the involvement of doctors in an organization is a recipe for disaster and, in a short period of time, leads to frustration and increased turnover of doctors. An organization’s vision should be one about creating a healthier community that it serves, and not just limited to increasing profits.
Linzer and colleagues identified several variables that leadership should focus on: quality care, communication, and the values aimed at gaining the clinician’s lost trust. To change the culture in an organization, leaders need to be on-site with practicing physicians and work together to develop a common goal of improving patient outcomes. Increasing the involvement of doctors would increase community confidence in them.
Shivaraj Nagalli, MD, FACP
Internist, Shelby Baptist Medical Center, Alabaster, Alabama
Disclosure: Nagalli does not report any relevant financial information.
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