OBJECTIVE To determine the nature of inaccuracies likely to occur when standardized patients (SPs) are used to measure physician behaviour and to evaluate the potential impact of these inaccuracies on estimates of physician performance. DESIGN Secondary analysis from a randomized controlled trial. SETTING Family physicians' offices. STUDY PARTICIPANTS Eighteen individuals, each portraying...

KEY FINDINGS Data from the National Electronic Health Records Survey •In 2015, the percentage of physicians who had electronically sent patient health information ranged from 19.4% in Idaho to 56.3% in Arizona. •In 2015, the percentage of physicians who had electronically received patient health information ranged from 23.6% in Louisiana and Mississippi to 65.5% in Wisconsin. •In 2015, the perc...

OBJECTIVES This report describes ambulatory care visits made to physician offices in the United States. Statistics are presented on selected characteristics of the physician's practice, the patient, and the visit. METHODS The data presented in this report were collected in the 2006 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS), a national probability sample survey of visits to nonfederal of...

6583 Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) screening remains underutilized. Prior studies reported the cost-effectiveness of interventions to improve CRC screening, but none have been replicated in the setting of small medical practices. We recently conducted a randomized trial of an academic detailing strategy within 264 small physician offices in New York City. The objective of this analysis is...

An ombuds is an individual who informally helps people or groups (visitors) resolve disputes and/or interpersonal conflicts as an alternative to formal dispute resolution mechanisms within an organization. Ombuds are nearly ubiquitous in many governmental, business, and educational settings but only recently have gained visibility at medical schools. Medical schools in the United States are inc...

PURPOSE The cost implications associated with offloading outpatient surgery from hospitals to ambulatory surgery centers and the physician office remain poorly defined. Therefore, we determined whether payments for outpatient surgery vary by location of care. MATERIALS AND METHODS Using national Medicare claims from 1998 to 2006, we identified elderly patients who underwent 1 of 22 common out...

T paper examines the staffing, division of labor, and resulting profitability of primary care physician practices. Division of labor is viewed as a mechanism to increase the efficiency of production processes through specialization. At the same time, division of labor also introduces coordination cost as handoffs and communication needs increase. We attempt to empirically assess the net effect ...

BACKGROUND Community pharmacies are a convenient setting for vaccinating adults against infectious diseases in the United States. Whether the costs paid for vaccination in pharmacies differ from those in medical settings is unclear. OBJECTIVE To examine whether the direct medical costs paid for adult vaccination differ by vaccination setting. METHODS This was an observational retrospective ...