The effect of physician empathy on patient outcomes (patient satisfaction and compliance) in Korea

Physician empathy has been reported to be one of the most important determinants of patients' outcomes. Like American patients, empathic physicians may be desired by Korean patients as well, but rarely found in medical settings in Korea. Furthermore, the effects of Korean physician empathy on patients' outcomes are little known up to now. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a new empathy model with dualistic view (cognitive informational and affective empathy). The empathy model focuses on the physician-patient communication processes by determining how each empathy component is specifically related to patient outcomes (satisfaction and compliance). Participants in this study were recruited from a large, multifaceted university hospital in Pusan, Korea in 1999. Five hundred fifty (550) outpatients were participated in this survey. Structural equation analysis using EQS software program (Windows 5.7b version) was utilized to test the empathy model.;The results showed that the physician's empathic communication skills significantly influenced patient satisfaction and patient compliance via the mediating factors such as partnership and perception of physician expertise. Above all, for Korean patients, emotional aspects of physicians' communicative behaviors played the most important roles in their compliance and satisfaction (e.g., partnership and affective empathy). Interestingly, the fact that partnership was the most significant factor influencing both patient compliance and satisfaction may reflect Korean patients' strong yearning for an egalitarian relationship with their physicians in the current hierarchical authority structure of the medical consultation processes in Korea. Finally, important implications for medical providers in Korea were suggested.