Customer satisfaction: An integral component of hospital strategy

Acknowledging the important role physician satisfaction plays relative to financial outcomes has been a relatively recent phenomenon within the health care industry. The purposes of this study were to determine the relationships between physician satisfaction in terms of a place to practice medicine and a linear combination of hospital administrators willingness to encourage physician input and involvement in decision making, nursing staff competency in assessing patient status, and availability of medical equipment to deliver medical care; the relationship between each of the selected hospital practices and physician satisfaction in terms of a place to practice medicine controlling for the remaining two selected hospital practice variables; and the linear combination of hospital administrators willingness to encourage physician input and involvement in decision making and each of the selected hospital practice variables.; The sample consisted of 104 randomly selected physicians who practiced at one Midwestern hospital within 18 months preceding the survey. The instrument pertained to an 83-item telephone interview conducted by professionally trained interviewers.; The statistics that pertained to the relationship between the hospital as a place to practice medicine and hospital administrators willingness to encourage physician input and involvement in decision making, nursing staff competency in assessing patient status, and availability of medical equipment to deliver medical care were significant R2 = .15, p = .00. The β values that pertained to the relationship between the hospital as a place to practice medicine and hospital administrators' willingness to encourage physician input and involvement in decision making (p = .03) and the availability of medical equipment (p = .01) while controlling for each of the remaining variables were significant. The r values that pertained to the relationship between hospital as a place to practice medicine and each of the hospital administrators' willingness to encourage physician input and involvement in decision making (r = .23, p = .01); nursing staff competency relative to assessment and monitoring of patient status (r = .17, p = .05); and availability of medical equipment to deliver medical care (r = .33, p = .00) were significant.; Results of the study were similar to existing literature specific to physicians' desire for involvement in decision-making, competent nursing staff, and the availability of medical equipment in a hospital setting. Contrary to what was reported in the literature relative to physician desire for input and involvement in decision making as a key driver of physician satisfaction, this study's findings suggest that the availability of medical equipment was also a key item relative to physician satisfaction. The need for further research and identification of other contributing variables was recognized. Implications for hospital administrators are presented and discussed.