Those frustrations were shared among many respondents.
One doc boiled it down to this: “No job satisfaction, constant aggravation, all the responsibility but no authority.” Another weighed in with this: “We generally love our work but do not love the conditions under which we practice.”
Despite those professional woes and the at-times scant hours with family, almost half of respondents report being “happier and better adjusted than most people.” Another 29 percent count themselves as emotionally average. When asked to rate their happiness on a scale of 1 to 10, 78 percent ranked themselves at seven or above.
So it doesn’t seem as though physicians are any grouchier than other Americans. Gallup’s annual personal satisfaction poll reported late last year that about 80 percent of Americans say they are satisfied with the way things are going in their personal lives. That’s a dip from previous years, but not too shabby considering the general state of affairs.
In the voting booth
From Anderson’s marathon weeks to Purohit’s homemade meals, the physicians we surveyed proved to be a diverse group of individuals, each with different ways of taking on some of the common ills of the profession. And although you might all struggle with pay, long hours, and day-to-day stress, when you enter the polling booth, it’s hard to pin you down as a group.
While 34 percent of those surveyed are registered Democrats, 30 percent are registered Republicans, and a surprising 10.8 percent aren’t registered at all. About half voted for President Obama, and when it came to selecting your congressional representatives, respondents were split; 39 percent voting mainly Democratic and 33 percent mainly Republican. These numbers shake out similarly among age groups as well, though the left-leaners tended to be younger. Just over half of you consider yourselves “moderately involved” in politics, paying attention and voting, but leaving the dirty work to others. “I just watch CNN and follow things in the newspaper,” says Anderson.
Most of those surveyed (56.6 percent) see America’s healthcare system as needing fundamental reform, and another 24 percent consider the system in trouble, but say it could be fixed without a major overhaul. Only 12 respondents (0.9 percent) contend the system is just fine the way it is.
But what should healthcare reform look like? On this subject physicians are as discordant as the rest of the country.
We offered several possible reform models and asked respondents to pick one. The most popular idea was to require all uninsured citizens to get private insurance, with government subsidies to help pay the bills, while allowing everyone else to keep what they have. Next was a proposal to eliminate employer-sponsored coverage, replacing it with a system of government-subsidized individual insurance on the private market. In truth, though, none of our ideas garnered support from even three physicians out of 10. (Our survey was conducted before the current debate about a “public option” to compete with private insurers for non-Medicare beneficiaries, so that wasn’t among the choices.)
Besides a major overhaul to the system, many respondents have other changes in mind. Topping that list is tort reform to reduce malpractice lawsuits, which 87 percent agreed needs a fix. In Miami, Rodriguez expressed particular concern about frivolous lawsuits, saying his city is known for being sympathetic to malpractice suits. “People are there to see how they can kind of hit the lotto of malpractice,” he says. This also makes it hard, he says, as the managing partner of the group, to recruit new physicians.
Also high on the list of reforms, each with about 58 percent, were quality of care initiatives aimed at reducing medical errors and financial incentives to encourage people to go to medical school. Others called for the government to get out of healthcare entirely, while another asked to “bring the humanity back.”
But even in the face of the complicated and at times frustrating healthcare landscape, most of you are happy with the path you’ve chosen. You responded to a calling that you found intellectually stimulating and that provided an opportunity to help people. “Every patient is a learning experience,” says Purohit. “I enjoy what I do. The busier I am, the better I perform.”
(*Editor’s note: If you are looking for raw survey data, here are survey results broken out by question, response, and percent.)
Sara Michael is an associate editor at Physicians Practice. She can be reached at sara.michael@cmpmedica.com.
This article originally appeared in the October 2009 issue of Physicians Practice.
