Factors in the doctor-patient relationship that accentuate physicians' hurt feelings when patients terminate the relationship with them

Objective: The present study explores the emotional effect of the injury experienced by physician's, as a consequence of a patient's termination of their relationship. Methods: A vignette study using different scenarios describing a patient who switched to another doctor was distributed to 119 family physicians. A three-way ANCOVA analysis was employed. Additionally, physicians' answered an open question asking of situations that elicited negative emotions. Results: The quantitative results indicated that termination of the relationship by a "high status" patient and/or after a long duration is more emotionally hurtful than termination by a "lower status" patient after a brief relationship. The results of the open question provided an additional insight into the emotional impact of the doctor's hurt feelings on the doctor-patient relationship. Conclusions: The severity and consequences of the emotional injury experienced by physicians when patients decide to transfer to another physician are influenced by factors related to the patient, physician and the relationship between them. Practice implications: We discuss the implications of our results on the understanding of the emotional injury and consequent impaired function and possible "burn-out" in physicians and explore the possibility of educating doctors to heightened awareness and consequently enhanced ability to cope with such situations.