Association of Hospital Employee Satisfaction with Patient Safety and Satisfaction within Veterans Affairs Medical Centers.

BACKGROUND

Employee satisfaction is thought to impact performance. However, which aspects of employee satisfaction matter most is unknown. We utilized data from the Veterans Affairs Medical Centers(VAMC) via their Strategic Analytics for Improvement and Learning program to examine the association between organizational satisfaction as well as job-specific satisfaction with measures of patient safety, patient satisfaction, and hospital rating.

METHODS

The correlation between employee satisfaction with their organization and with their specific job were examined across indicators of patient care using Pearson and Spearman's correlation. Employee satisfaction data were obtained from the All Employee Survey.

RESULTS

We found that employee job-specific satisfaction does not correlate with patient outcomes, whereas higher satisfaction with the organization is associated with improved patient safety (ρ = -0.19, P < .05) and correlates with all aspects of patient satisfaction ("top box" ratings of hospital [r = 0.30, P < 0.005], primary care [r = 0.25, P < 0.005], and specialty care [r = 0.14, P < 0.005]). Further, employees are more satisfied with their job and organization when they work at a VAMC with a higher Star rating.

CONCLUSION

Employee organizational satisfaction and job-specific satisfaction are distinct metrics, and it is higher organizational satisfaction that is associated with improved patient care.