Stepping into the Patient’s Shoes: Investigating the Correlation between Physiotherapist Empathy and Patient Satisfaction

Description

Page: 369-373

Kevin Thakkar and Chhaya Verma (Physiotherapy School and Centre, Topiwala National Medical College and B.Y.L. Nair Charitable Hospital, Mumbai, Maharashtra)

Empathy is crucial in healthcare as it helps healthcare professionals connect with patients, understand their needs and provide tailored treatment. Research exploring the relationship between empathy and patient satisfaction in physiotherapy is limited. Physiotherapy is patient-centered and is based on functional diagnosis and thus requires physiotherapists to empathize with their patients for effective diagnosis and treatment planning, leading to better patient outcomes and compliance. Given the importance of empathy in physiotherapy, this study aims to investigate the relationship between empathy levels of treating therapists and the satisfaction of patients seeking physical therapy in an outpatient setting. The methodology of this study is designed to determine the correlation between physiotherapists’ empathy and patient satisfaction in an observational cross-sectional design. With the prior approval of the DRB and permission to use the empathy scale TEQ (Spreng et al., 2009) and patient satisfaction PTOPS (Roush & Sonstroem, 1999) obtained from the respective authors, 50 therapists were recruited to participate in the study. For each therapist, 3 patients were approached to provide feedback on their treatment using the PTOPS. The collected data was analyzed statistically to determine the correlation between physiotherapists’ empathy and patient satisfaction. The average empathy score was 43.68 ± 7.9, with higher scores among males and those with more work experience or postgraduate degrees. The PTOPS responses revealed a mean score of 41.20 ± 1.43 for enhancers, 22.79 ± 1.75 for detractors, 19.26 ± 1.52 for location, and 20.77 ± 1.55 for cost. A significant negative correlation was found between physiotherapists’ empathy and detractor components of PTOPS, but no significant correlations were found between empathy and enhancers, location, or cost. This study provides evidence for the positive correlation between physiotherapist empathy and patient satisfaction. The results demonstrate the importance of empathy in creating a therapeutic relationship and in addressing patient concerns to reduce dissatisfaction.