Time clock requirements for hospital physicians

Chen Shapira, Iris Vilnai-Yavetz, Anat Rafaeli and Moran Zemel

Health Policy, 2016, vol. 120, issue 6, 690-697

Abstract: An agreement negotiated following a doctors’ strike in 2011 introduced a requirement that physicians in Israel's public hospitals clock in and out when starting and leaving work. The press reported strong negative reactions to this policy and predicted doctors deserting hospitals en masse. This study examines physicians’ reactions toward the clock-in/clock-out policy 6 months after its implementation, and assesses the relationship between these reactions and aspects of their employment context. 676 physicians in 42 hospitals responded to a survey assessing doctor's reactions toward the clock, hospital policy makers, and aspects of their work. Reactions to the clock were generally negative. Sense of calling correlated positively with negative reactions to the clock, and the latter correlated positively with quit intentions. However, overall, respondents reported a high sense of calling and low quit intentions. We suggest that sense of calling buffers and protects physicians from quit intentions. Differences in reactions to the clock were associated with different employment characteristics, but sense of calling did not vary by hospital size or type or by physicians’ specialty. The findings offer insights into how physicians’ working environment affects their reactions to regulatory interventions, and highlight medical professionalism as buffering reactions to unpopular regulatory policies.

Keywords: Clocking in; Time clocks; Hospital physicians; Sense of calling; Quit intentions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168851016300902
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:120:y:2016:i:6:p:690-697

DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2016.04.013

Access Statistics for this article

Health Policy is currently edited by Katrien Kesteloot, Mia Defever and Irina Cleemput

More articles in Health Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu () and ().