Journal article
Waiting to See the Doctor The Impact of Organizational Structure on Medical Practice
Medical care, Vol.21(5), pp.531-542
05/1983
DOI: 10.1097/00005650-198305000-00006
PMID: 6843204
Abstract
In this article it is assessed whether or not the scheduling and office visit queues a patient faces depend upon the organizational structure of the physicianʼs practice (i.e., does the physician practice in the fee-for-service system or in a health maintenance organization [HMO], and if in an HMO, in what type of an HMO). Data pooled from two national studies (N = 2448) reveal two major findings. First, although scheduling queues may be predicted from the organizational structure of physiciansʼ practices and other factors, office queues appear to be more of a random phenomenon. Second, a distinct pattern emerges among the effects of the organizational structure of physiciansʼ practices on patient queues, including 1) physicians in solo practice offer their patients the shortest queues, 2) physicians in group model HMOs maximize scheduling queues but minimize waiting room queues, 3) patient queues for physicians practicing in IP As are no different from those of their counterparts in group-practice fee-for-service settings, and 4) patient queues for salaried physicians practicing in a predominantly salaried environment are among the longest. The implications of these findings are discussed with special reference to extant and future studies of the effects of organizational structure on medical practice.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Waiting to See the Doctor The Impact of Organizational Structure on Medical Practice
- Creators
- FREDRIC Wolinsky - Associate Professor of Health Care Administration, and Director of the Doctoral Program in Health Services Research, St. Louis University Medical Center, St. Louis, Missouri. † Research Economist/Assistant to the Director, Center for Health Policy Research, American Medical AssociationWILLIAM Marder
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Medical care, Vol.21(5), pp.531-542
- Publisher
- Lippincott-Raven Publishers
- DOI
- 10.1097/00005650-198305000-00006
- PMID
- 6843204
- ISSN
- 0025-7079
- eISSN
- 1537-1948
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 05/1983
- Academic Unit
- Health Management and Policy
- Record Identifier
- 9984363583702771
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