Physician gender,physician patient-centered behavior,and patient satisfaction: A study in three practice settings within a hospital

Objective

To compare male and female physicians on patient-centeredness and patients’ satisfaction in three practice settings within a hospital; to test whether satisfaction is more strongly predicted by patient-centeredness in male than female physicians.

Methods

Encounters between physicians (N = 71) and patients (N = 497) in a hospital were videotaped and patients’ satisfaction was measured. Patient-centeredness was measured by trained coders.

Results

In the outpatient setting, female physicians were somewhat more patient-centered than male physicians; patient satisfaction did not differ. In the inpatient and emergency room settings, female physicians were notably more patient-centered than male physicians; satisfaction paralleled these differences. Nevertheless, there was some, though mixed, evidence that patient-centeredness predicted satisfaction more strongly in male than female physicians, suggesting that patients valued patient-centered behavior more in male than female physicians.

Conclusion

Even though satisfaction mirrored the different behavior styles of male and female physicians in the inpatient and emergency room settings, in all settings male physicians got somewhat more credit for being patient-centered than female physicians did.

Practice implications

If female physicians do not consistently receive credit for high patient-centeredness in the eyes of patients, this could lead female physicians to reduce their patient-centered behavior.