Relationship Between Orthopedic Surgeon's Empathy and Inpatient Hospital Experience Scores in a Tertiary Care Academic Institution

Johanna Dobransky; Kathleen Gartke; Lissa Pacheco-Brousseau; Edward Spilg; Ashley Perreault; Mohammad Ameen; Alexandra Finless; Paul E Beaulé; Stéphane Poitras

doi:10.1177/2374373520968972

Relationship Between Orthopedic Surgeon's Empathy and Inpatient Hospital Experience Scores in a Tertiary Care Academic Institution

J Patient Exp. 2020 Dec;7(6):1549-1555. doi: 10.1177/2374373520968972. Epub 2020 Oct 27.

Authors

Johanna Dobransky¹, Kathleen Gartke², Lissa Pacheco-Brousseau^{1

3}, Edward Spilg⁴, Ashley Perreault¹, Mohammad Ameen², Alexandra Finless¹, Paul E Beaulé², Stéphane Poitras³

Affiliations

¹ Division of Orthopaedic Surgery, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
² Division of Orthopaedic Surgery, Department of Surgery, The Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
³ Department of Physiotherapy, School of Rehabilitation, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
⁴ Division of Geriatrics, Department of Medicine, The Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Abstract

Studies have examined the relationship between physician empathy and patient experience, but few have explored it in surgeons. The purpose of this study was to report on orthopedic surgeon empathy in a mutlispecialty practice and explore its association with orthopedic patient experience. Patients completed the consultation and relational empathy (CARE) measure (March 2017-August 2018) and Canadian Patient Experience Survey-Inpatient Care (CPES-IC; March 2017-February 2019) to assess empathy and patient experience, respectively. Consultation and relational empathy measures were correlated to CPES-IC for 3 surgeon-related questions pertaining to respect, listening, and explaining. Surgeon CARE scores (n = 1134) ranged from 42.0 ± 9.1 to 48.6 ± 2.4 with 50.4% of patients rating their surgeon as perfectly empathic. There were no significant differences between surgeons for CPES-IC continuous and topbox scores (n = 834) for respect and correlations between CPES-IC questions. The CARE measure for both continuous and topbox scores were weak to moderate, but none were significant. Empathy was associated with surgeon respect and careful listening, despite lack of significant correlation. Possible future work could use an empathy tool more appropriate for this surgeon population.

Keywords: CARE measure; Canadian patient experience survey; empathy; orthopedic surgeon; patient experience.