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Religious hospitals and primary care physicians: conflicts over policies for patient care.
- Source :
- JGIM: Journal of General Internal Medicine; Jul2010, Vol. 25 Issue 7, p725-730, 6p, 3 Charts
- Publication Year :
- 2010
-
Abstract
- <bold>Background: </bold>Religiously affiliated hospitals provide nearly 20% of US beds, and many prohibit certain end-of-life and reproductive health treatments. Little is known about physician experiences in religious institutions.<bold>Objective: </bold>Assess primary care physicians' experiences and beliefs regarding conflict with religious hospital policies for patient care.<bold>Design: </bold>Cross-sectional survey.<bold>Participants: </bold>General internists, family physicians, and general practitioners from the AMA Masterfile.<bold>Main Measures: </bold>In a questionnaire mailed in 2007, we asked physicians whether they had worked in a religiously affiliated hospital or practice, whether they had experienced conflict with the institution over religiously based patient care policies and how they believed physicians should respond to such conflicts. We used chi-square and multivariate logistic regression to examine associations between physicians' demographic and religious characteristics and their responses.<bold>Key Results: </bold>Of 879 eligible physicians, 446 (51%) responded. In analyses adjusting for survey design, 43% had worked in a religiously affiliated institution. Among these, 19% had experienced conflict over religiously based policies. Most physicians (86%) believed when clinical judgment conflicts with religious hospital policy, physicians should refer patients to another institution. Compared with physicians ages 26-29 years, older physicians were less likely to have experienced conflict with religiously based policies [odds ratio (95% confidence interval) compared with 30-34 years: 0.02 (0.00-0.11); 35-46 years: 0.07 (0.01-0.72); 47-60 years: 0.02 (0.00-0.10)]. Compared with those who never attend religious services, those who do attend were less likely to have experienced conflict [attend once a month or less: odds ratio 0.06 (0.01-0.29); attend twice a month or more: 0.22 (0.05-0.98)]. Respondents with no religious affiliation were more likely than others to believe doctors should disregard religiously based policies that conflict with clinical judgment (13% vs. 3%; p = 0.005).<bold>Conclusions: </bold>Hospitals and policy-makers may need to balance the competing claims of physician autonomy and religiously based institutional policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- PATIENTS
INTERNAL medicine
GENERAL practitioners
HOSPITAL care
RELIGIOUS behaviors
ATTITUDE (Psychology)
COMPARATIVE studies
CONFLICT (Psychology)
HOSPITALS
RESEARCH methodology
MEDICAL care
MEDICAL cooperation
MEDICAL personnel
MEDICAL protocols
RELIGION & medicine
PHYSICIAN-patient relations
RESEARCH
RESEARCH funding
EVALUATION research
CROSS-sectional method
PSYCHOLOGY
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 08848734
- Volume :
- 25
- Issue :
- 7
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- JGIM: Journal of General Internal Medicine
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 51242419
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-010-1329-6