Romanian Family Doctors' Barometre - a Survey on Satisfaction and Performance

Raluca Zoitanu, Diana Nemeș, Vlad Florin Chelaru, Răzvan Mircea Cherecheș, Sandra Adalgiza Alexiu, Marius Ionuț Ungureanu, Daniel Enescu

Keywords: satisfaction, performance, survey

Introduction:

Family doctors are the must trusted and first point of contact for patients in the Romanian health care system. This research aimed to provide an overview of their specific professional and personal needs and identify priority action areas.
The study was carried out by Daedalus Medical together with Babes-Bolyai University, was supported by the Bucharest-Ilfov Family Physicians Association and was financed by the Romanian Commercial Bank.

Method:

We collected data from 305 Family Doctors based on a 20 minutes self-administered online survey in June-July 2022. The sample was balanced by region and urbanization degree. The general objective of the survey was to identify the needs of family doctors and the opportunities to increase their satisfaction. Specific objectives included measuring the state of family doctors on job satisfaction, burnout, work-life balance; measuring GPs' satisfaction with: relationship with patients, training and personal development, available resources and facilities, financial aspects, administrative aspects, relationship with authorities and image/status of the GP profession; identifying priorities for action to increase the satisfaction of family physicians.

Results:

Overall, Romanian family doctors rated their health as good and their work-life balance decent. 83% of family doctors feel satisfied with their patient relationship. Nevertheless, these aspects tend to be eroded by the high frequency of stressful situations and by the administrative burden, both of them correlated (negatively) with their work satisfaction. We have identified four areas of priority based on the attributes that are important but generate high dissatisfaction among Family Doctors: (1) Importance given to FDs in the health system; (2) Efficiency of current rules and regulations; (3) Payment for services; and (4) Relationship with the authorities.

Conclusions:

While Romanian family doctors feel satisfied about their work and patient relationship, the administrative burden and disrespect from authorities pushes the job towards insignificance. Improved feedback from authorities and real dialogue is needed.

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