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35 PRACTICE MANAGEMENT What Not to Wear — Physician's Attire Elicits Mixed Responses in Outpatient Orthopedic Centers By Eric Oliver A study in Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Re- search examined the effect physicians' attire has on a patient's perception of them in an outpatient orthopedic setting. Here's what you need to know. 1. Researchers from Philadelphia's Temple University sur- veyed 85 patients at an outpatient orthopedic clinic at an ur- ban teaching hospital. 2. Researchers presented eight images, four male and four female, to the patients. The surgeons wore a variety of uni- forms including: a white coat covering formal attire, scrubs, business attire and casual attire. The patients had to rate how confident, trustworthy, safe, car- ing and smart the surgeon appeared; how the surgery would go and how likely they were to discuss personal information with the surgeon. 3. The researchers found that the white coat on a male sur- geon had higher rating in confidence, intelligence, surgical skill, trust, ability to discuss confidential information and safe- ty than a surgeon in business attire. Patients preferred the white coat to casual attire in all categories. 4. For female surgeons, there was no difference between the white coat and scrubs, but the white coat was preferred to business attire in a majority of categories. 5. Patients disliked when providers wore casual clothing. 6. The researchers concluded that patients preferred the white coat, and they were more likely to believe the surgery would go better if the surgeon had a white coat or scrubs. The study supports past research that surgeons should wear scrubs instead of business and casual attire if not sporting a white coat. n 9 Mayo Clinic Strategies to Quench the Physician Burnout Flame By Megan Wood R ochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic recommend- ed nine strategies for healthcare organizations to combat physician burnout, which impacts productiv- ity, turnover rates and quality of care. Tait Shanafelt, MD, Mayo Clinic's physician well-being program director, and John Noseworthy, MD, Mayo Clinic's president and CEO, outlined the strategies in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Here are the nine key strategies: 1. Acknowledge and assess the problem of physician burn- out. 2. Recognize leader behaviors that fuel or diminish burn- out. 3. Leverage a systems approach to establish targeted inter- ventions for enhancing efficiency and decreasing clerical work. 4. Foster a strong community at work. 5. Incentivize with rewards, strategically. 6. Determine if your organization is demonstrating your values and mission in action. 7. Implement organizational practices and policies, which promote flexibility and a work-life balance. 8. Equip employees with resources for self-care. 9. Support organizational science, by analyzing which in- stitutional factors contribute to the problem. Then, invest in solutions. "Professional exhaustion and disillusionment can adversely impact clinical performance, and result in medical errors and decreased quality of care. This situation hurts patients and providers, and we need to fix it," said Dr. Noseworthy. n These 2 Factors Impact Press Ganey Patient Satisfaction Scores in Outpatient Orthopedic Clinics By Eric Oliver A study in e Spine Journal examined Press Ganey databases to identify the top factors im- pacting patient satisfaction outpatient orthope- dic clinics. Researchers reviewed Press Ganey databases from 2013 to 2015 and analyzed a total of 353 patients. Of those, 332 were satisfied with their visit and 21 were unsatisfied. Here are the two factors impacting patient sat- isfaction. 1. Pain score Of the 353 analyzed patients, patient satisfac- tion was higher when the reported pain score was around 4.02. Patients who were somewhat satisfied or not satisfied had pain scores of sev- en and six. 2. Spending enough time with a patient Patients were more likely to dislike their visit if they felt their provider did not spend enough time with them. n