Emotional Engagement of Physicians: Part II

This is the second article in a two-part series about physician engagement.

As discussed in the first part of this series (see "Emotional Engagement of Physicians" in Related Items), fewer than one in 10 physicians are fully engaged with the hospitals at which they practice and the healthcare plans for which they work. These low engagement scores largely result from a lack of emotional attachment on the part of physicians. The first article introduced four components that Gallup has identified as predictive of emotional attachment: Confidence, Integrity, Pride and Passion. This week, we take a closer look at each of these components and discuss what hospitals and healthcare plans can do to increase the emotional connectedness of their physician "customers."

Confidence

Gallup research indicates that Confidence is key to developing any sort of emotional attachment. Confidence in an institution requires the perception that the institution is always trustworthy and always keeps its promises. These perceptions are the foundations of emotional attachment; long-term physician engagement will suffer without a strong base of Confidence. Physicians will bestow especially low ratings to hospitals that fail to deliver on their promises and in the long term the engagement levels of those physicians will suffer.

Gallup has found that the people working at hospitals and for healthcare plans -- particularly those serving in management capacities -- are key to building physician Confidence. These people are responsible for responding to queries in a timely manner, providing consistent care delivery to patients, and ensuring that the institution's actions are consistent with its mission -- all management activities that are vitally important to the formation of Confidence.

Integrity

The Integrity dimension is about fairness, a common factor in service recovery and problem solving. Physicians want to feel as though their problems are resolved fairly and promptly. If there is a surgical scheduling error, for example, they want a competent person to address the error in a polite and helpful fashion.

Pride

It may seem that Pride would be easier to earn from physicians then either Confidence or Integrity. That's because one aspect of Pride is simply a reflection of an institution's reputation in the medical and general communities. That is, physicians may feel that working in a particular world-class institution reflects well on them individually. But Pride also reflects the degree to which each physician feels that the institution and its people demonstrate a high degree of respect and place a high value on his or her relationship with the organization. Low ratings of Confidence and Integrity will eventually erode overall engagement; and they will also damage physicians' perceptions that they are being treated with respect and their resulting Pride in the relationship.

Passion

What prompts physicians to feel passionate about their relationship with a healthcare plan or hospital? What leads them to view the institutions with which they work as irreplaceable? Preliminary Gallup data strongly suggest that many of the same attributes that drive Confidence also build Passion. However, while it takes consistently good performance at each and every encounter to build physician Confidence, Gallup's research reveals that it takes great, world-class performance by the institution's people and services to create physician Passion.

Key Points

People form emotional attachments with other people more so than with processes or services. It is therefore not surprising that people, including those in management as well as those on the "frontlines" within a hospital or healthcare plan, are a critical factor in managing each of the components of physicians' emotional attachment: Confidence, Integrity, Pride and Passion. Even Pride, which may also be driven to some degree by the institution's image is driven by people in the long run; in the long-term physicians must also feel that they are being treated with respect in order to maintain Pride in the association.

In short, the first step in improving the emotional attachment of physicians to a hospital or healthcare plan, is to look at the people working there. The most effective procedures are worth nothing without talented people to implement and support them.