Concept: Physician Characteristics

Introduction

Physician profiling is valuable in contributing to an understanding of the role of the primary care physician. These data provide useful information as to the effect of the physician in various areas including needs-based planning, physician styles, patient management, billing rates, and health policy.

Characteristics

Key physician characteristics include age and gender, patient recall rate, average number of patients seen per day, relative income, and practice location.

Age and Gender

The physicians' age and gender may be identified from the physician registry, called the Manitoba Provider Registry data at MCHP. The Provider Registry includes physician birthdate and sex, as well as additional information about the physician, including specialty (MDBLOC) and training location.

Patient Recall Rate

The patient recall rate is estimated on the basis of the mean number of visits each physician had with his patients (regardless of diagnosis) over one year. Since a patient's total number of physician contacts includes those to their most frequently seen physician as well as those to all other physicians (both general physicians and specialists), there is no fixed relation between patient visit rate and patient recall rate.

Average Number of Patients Seen Per Day

Daily patient load may be estimated using the mean number of patients seen per day on all days that the physician saw at least two patients. For a sample calculation and suggested SAS code refer to the document titled "Calculate Average Number of Patients - SAS Code" available below.

Also see MCHP Physician Resource Database for information already summarized.

Relative Income

Relative income is based on total payments received by physicians before the calculation of office or other expenses. Physician incomes are classified in 3 groups: those billing less than a full-time-equivalent (FTE) general practitioner, those billing at an average to relatively high rate (FTE to 1.5 FTE) and those in the highest billing group (more than 1.5 FTE). See the Full Time Equivalent Physicians - Calculations concept for more information on physician incomes.

Also see MCHP Physician Resource Database for information already summarized.

Practice Location

The location of the practice is determined by locating the areas in which most of the physician's patients come from. Location may be classified at various levels of detail.

Also see MCHP Physician Resource Database for information already summarized.