Measurement of Patient's Perception Levels With Reference to Physician's Empathy: Private Hospitals Scenario

Purpose This study aims at understanding the empathy of doctors and the perception level of patients about it. The survey was conducted including doctors and patients who were cured by these doctors. Methods Patient's Perception Scale of Physician Empathy and Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy were applied to 70 physicians who worked at 35 private hospitals in Istanbul and 420 patients who received health services from these physicians. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 24.0 program (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY) was used for statistical analysis. Results Physicians who worked in the internal medicine department had more empathy toward the patients. Physicians who were new to the medical profession or who were young had higher empathy levels. Patients who received health services perceived that the surgeons had more empathy. Moreover, it was found that the empathy perception among the educated patients was significantly higher towards physicians. Conclusion The perception level of patients for empathy depends directly on the empathy developed by the doctors. Providing better working conditions for the physicians and preparing the educational plans to increase the health information of patients could improve the physician's empathy with the patients and patient will get better health services.