Medical staff in China’s tertiary public hospitals are responsible for providing healthcare to a considerable number of patients, and their job satisfaction needs attention. The aim of this study is to investigate the job satisfaction of medical staff in tertiary public hospitals and to explore its associated factors. Based on a national survey conducted in 2016, this study included 43,645 physicians and nurses nested in 136 tertiary public hospitals in 31 provinces of China. Multi-level logistic regression was used to examine job satisfaction and its association with individual characteristics and job-related factors. Results showed that 48.22% respondents were satisfied with their job, and they were least satisfied with their compensation. Individual characteristics including occupation, gender, education background, alcohol drinking and self-reported health status, as well as job-related factors regarding professional title, work years, income, workload, doctor-patient relationship and practice setting were found to be significantly associated with job satisfaction. Given that some of these factors may be amenable to interventions, we suggest that government and hospital administrators could take some measures to promote continuing education, improve personal health, balance workload and compensation for medical staff, in order to improve the job satisfaction of medical staff in tertiary public hospitals.

Background: Psychiatric readmissions negatively impact patients and their families while increasing healthcare costs. This study aimed at investigating factors associated with psychiatric readmissions within 30 days and 1 year of the index admissions and exploring the possibilities of monitoring and improving psychiatric care quality in China.Methods: Data on index admission, subsequent admission(s), clinical and hospital-related factors were extracted in the inpatient medical record database covering 10 secondary and tertiary psychiatric hospitals in Beijing, China. Logistic regressions were used to examine the associations between 30-day and 1-year readmissions plus frequent readmissions (≥3 times/year), and clinical variables as well as hospital characteristics.Results: The 30-day and 1-year psychiatric readmission rates were 16.69% (1289/7724) and 33.79% (2492/7374) respectively. 746/2492 patients (29.34%) were readmitted 3 times or more within a year (frequent readmissions). Factors significantly associated with the risk of both 30-day and 1-year readmission were residing in an urban area, having medical comorbidities, previous psychiatric admission(s), length of stay > 60 days in the index admission and being treated in tertiary hospitals (p < 0.001). Male patients were more likely to have frequent readmissions (OR 1.30, 95%CI 1.04–1.64). Receiving electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) was significantly associated with a lower risk of 30-day readmission (OR 0.72, 95%CI 0.56–0.91) and frequent readmissions (OR 0.60, 95%CI 0.40–0.91).Conclusion: More than 30% of the psychiatric inpatients were readmitted within 1 year. Urban residents, those with medical comorbidities and previous psychiatric admission(s) or a longer length of stay were more likely to be readmitted, and men are more likely to be frequently readmitted. ECT treatment may reduce the likelihood of 30-day readmission and frequent admissions. Targeted interventions should be designed and piloted to effectively monitor and reduce psychiatric readmissions.

Measuring family members’ satisfaction with inpatient psychiatric care may help improve the quality of healthcare in psychiatric hospitals. This survey aimed to investigate the satisfaction of family members with inpatient psychiatric care and to explore its associated factors, using a newly-developed 5-item questionnaire. This study included 1598 family members of psychiatric inpatients in 32 tertiary public psychiatric hospitals in 29 provinces of China. Satisfaction and demographic data were collected by research staff while patient and hospital data were retrieved separately. We found that the overall satisfaction level was 93.84% (23.46/25). The total satisfaction score in Northeast China was the highest, followed by the East, Middle and West regions (p < 0.001). There was no significant sex difference in total family satisfaction scores. Family members with a lower educational background (elementary school or less) had significantly lower satisfaction. Family members of patients who were diagnosed with schizophrenia were significantly less satisfied with doctor-family communication. In different treatment response subgroups, the marked improvement subgroup had significantly higher total satisfaction scores and subscores. Meanwhile, lower self-payment expenses and a higher number of psychologic treatments offered per day were significantly associated with higher total satisfaction scores and all subscores. Logistic regression showed a higher educational background, more psychologic treatments offered per day, adequacy of professional staffing (higher doctor/bed, nurse/bed and psychologist/bed ratio) were all significantly associated with higher family satisfaction. We suggest government and hospital managers recruit more mental health professions to improve family satisfaction. If feasible, providing more psychologic treatments to inpatients may also improve families’ satisfaction and involvement.