Variations in physician practice are pervasive and costly, and may be harmful. The objective of much policy is to increase the interconnectedness of physicians, furthering the transfer of information and thus reducing variation. This study tests whether physicians are influenced by the practice of peers, or if propensity, mere context or sorting of like-minded physicians better explain similari...

Background: Overuse of injections is a common problem in many low-income and middle income countries. Whil

Previous studies have demonstrated the cost-effectiveness of physician-pharmacist collaborations to improve hypertension control. However, most studies have limited generalizability, lacking minority and low-income populations. The Collaboration Among Pharmacist and Physicians to Improve Blood Pressure Now (CAPTION) trial randomized 625 patients from 32 medical offices in 15 states. Each office...

OBJECTIVE To describe physicians' and patients' reasons for participating in office-based sales of dermatologic products. DESIGN Survey data on the attitudes, opinions, and beliefs of dermatologists and their patients were analyzed. SETTING A market research study of office-based selling. PARTICIPANTS Thirty dermatologists involved in direct selling from the office, 20 dermatologists not ...

Cognitive screening measures for age-related cognitive impairment have been found to have only fair validity, and the risks of harm even may outweigh the benefits at this time (U.S. Preventative Service Task Force, 2003). A large-scale project designed to assess elder care in Primary Care Physician offices noted that dementia evaluation and treatment was one of the most overlooked aspects of ca...

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES : The role of the professional case manager is changing rapidly. Health reform has called upon the industry to ensure that care is delivered in an efficient, effective, and high-quality and low cost manner. As a means to achieve this objective, health plans and health systems are moving the care manager out of a centralized location within their organizations to "embedding" t...

BACKGROUND Electronic information exchange is believed to improve efficiency and reduce resource utilization. We developed a Web-based standardized communication system (SCS) that enables family physicians to receive detailed reports of their patients' care in the emergency department. We sought to determine the impact of the SCS on measures of resource utilization in the emergency department a...

National estimates are presented on principal reasons for visit expressed by patients during visits to physicians’ offices. Data are tabulated by sex of the patient and in terms of other characteristics of the physician-patient encounter. Age-specific average annual visit rates are included by sex of the patient. Secondand third-listed reasons for visit and principal diagnoses associated with t...

Computerization of physician practices is increasing. Stakeholders are demanding demonstrated value for their Electronic Medical Record (EMR) implementations. We developed survey tools to measure medical office processes, including administrative and physician tasks pre- and post-EMR implementation. We included variables that were expected to improve with EMR implementation and those that were ...