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Dentists' attitudes toward frustrating patient visits: relationship to satisfaction and malpractice complaints
Author(s) -
Mellor Anthony C.,
Milgrom Peter
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
community dentistry and oral epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.061
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1600-0528
pISSN - 0301-5661
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0528.1995.tb00191.x
Subject(s) - medicine , malpractice , feeling , cronbach's alpha , family medicine , patient satisfaction , dental practice , clinical psychology , nursing , dentistry , psychometrics , social psychology , psychology , political science , law
A 22‐item questionnaire measuring physician frustration in communicating with patients was adapted to dentists, and its reliability and validity assessed, in a sample of 289 English dental surgeons in general practice in Greater Manchester. Subscales were derived assessing the concepts of unpleasant dentist feelings, lack of communication, patient non‐compliance, patient control, and practice or organization with Cronbach's alpha ranging from 0.59 to 0.77. Three of five sub‐scale scores (unpleasant feelings, lack of communication, and practice organization) were significantly greater for dentists who had official malpractice complaints to insurers. Similarly, all five subscores were greater for dentists who reported larger numbers of unsatisfactory visits and expressed greater dissatisfaction with dental practice.