Журнал психологии и психотерапии
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The Association between Chinese Doctors Workload and Medical Disputes

Weixian Xu, Jingcheng Xie, Hubing Wu, Zhiguo Guo, Lijun Guo and Xinheng Feng

Objective: There is a surge of hospital violence against doctors in China. We aimed to investigate the changing trend of the doctors’ workload in China, and the associations between the doctors’ workload and the medical disputes.

Methods: The data was collected in a tertiary teaching hospital located in Beijing from 2001 to 2012, including the parameters of clinical work and research work of the doctors, as well as the number of the medical lawsuits.

Results: The number of patients and surgeries significantly increased. The number of doctors increased with a lower annual growth rate, leading to the doctor’s increasing workload. The papers published by the doctors and the research projects also increased. The medical lawsuits dramatically increased from 36 cases in 2006y to 65 cases in 2012y. The number of inpatient per doctor (IPPD) was positively related to the number of lawsuits. After adjustment for the confounders, such as average hospitalization expenses and in hospital death, the logarithmic transform of IPPD was significantly positively associated with the number of lawsuits.

Conclusions: The Chinese doctor’s workload is on rapid rise. The increasing workload was associated with medical disputes. Interventions aimed at reducing doctor’s workload are necessary.