Table 1.
Provider Self-Report of Physician and Office Characteristics
| Characteristic | All (N = 348; %) | Medical Oncologist (n = 111; %) | Radiation Oncologist (n = 66; %) | ACOS-Affiliated Surgeon (n = 125; %) | Non–ACOS-Affiliated Surgeon (n = 46; %) | P |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physician sex | < .01 | |||||
| Male | 82 | 76 | 79 | 88 | 84 | |
| Female | 18 | 24 | 21 | 12 | 16 | |
| Physician race/ethnicity | ||||||
| Non-Hispanic white | 66 | 64 | 63 | 70 | 64 | < .01 |
| Non-Hispanic black | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 9 | < .40 |
| Hispanic | 5 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 0 | < .05 |
| Asian | 20 | 23 | 24 | 15 | 18 | < .01 |
| Other | 6 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 9 | < .08 |
| Teaching involvement, days/mo | ||||||
| 0-1 | 57 | 56 | 68 | 52 | 59 | < .01 |
| 2-5 | 23 | 28 | 18 | 21 | 17 | < .01 |
| 6-15 | 8 | 9 | 6 | 7 | 8 | < .04 |
| > 15 | 13 | 8 | 8 | 20 | 15 | < .01 |
| Patient volume | ||||||
| No. of new patients in past month | < .01 | |||||
| Mean | 20 | 28 | 31 | 10 | 9 | |
| Range | 0-180 | 2-180 | 10-100 | 0-55 | 0-40 | |
| No. of offices at which physician sees patients | ||||||
| 1 | 61 | 53 | 53 | 67 | 78 | < .01 |
| 2 | 27 | 38 | 18 | 23 | 18 | < .01 |
| ≥ 3 | 11 | 7 | 29 | 10 | 4 | < .02 |
| Missing | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Reimbursement | ||||||
| > 50% fee for service | 44 | 38 | 29 | 62 | 29 | < .01 |
| Practice type | ||||||
| Solo | 30 | 24 | 8 | 46 | 30 | < .01 |
| County/medical school/university | 8 | 12 | 9 | 5 | 6 | < .01 |
| HMO | 18 | 16 | 13 | 14 | 42 | < .05 |
| Single-specialty group | 37 | 43 | 61 | 25 | 22 | < .01 |
| Multiple-specialty group | 7 | 5 | 9 | 10 | 0 | < .15 |
| Ownership interest in practice | ||||||
| Full | 40 | 32 | 20 | 56 | 41 | < .01 |
| Part | 36 | 43 | 38 | 27 | 40 | < .01 |
| None | 24 | 25 | 42 | 16 | 19 | < .01 |
| Practice size, No. of physicians | ||||||
| 1 | 27 | 22 | 8 | 79 | 69 | < .01 |
| 2-5 | 35 | 43 | 47 | 24 | 24 | < .01 |
| 6-49 | 15 | 19 | 20 | 9 | 13 | < .01 |
| ≥ 50 | 23 | 16 | 25 | 21 | 31 | < .07 |
| Hospital characteristics | ||||||
| Surgical oncology training program at hospital | ||||||
| Yes | 24 | 4 | < .01 | |||
| No | 75 | 91 | < .01 | |||
| Don't know | 2 | 0 | ||||
| Missing | 0 | 4 | ||||
| How frequently did physician attend formal meetings of physicians to discuss patient care (eg, tumor board meetings)? | ||||||
| Weekly | 58 | 63 | 92 | 47 | 32 | < .01 |
| Monthly | 25 | 26 | 6 | 33 | 28 | < .01 |
| Quarterly | 8 | 5 | 0 | 9 | 20 | < .55 |
| Less than quarterly | 6 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 14 | < .30 |
| Not at all | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 7 | < 1.0 |
| Missing | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| How frequently were physician's patients presented at meetings of physicians to discuss patient care (eg, tumor board meetings)? | ||||||
| Weekly | 39 | 41 | 67 | 31 | 17 | < .01 |
| Monthly | 30 | 30 | 23 | 33 | 31 | < .01 |
| Quarterly | 14 | 16 | 6 | 14 | 20 | < .01 |
| Less than quarterly | 12 | 7 | 2 | 16 | 26 | < .01 |
| Not at all | 6 | 7 | 2 | 7 | 7 | < .02 |
| Missing | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| If physician did attend tumor board in the last 12 mo, please think about the most helpful meeting. Did this meeting… | ||||||
| Serve a pretreatment planning function? | 72 | 70 | 83 | 76 | 56 | < .01 |
| Review all participants' cases versus unusual/controversial cases? | 54 | 53 | 54 | 57 | 49 | < .01 |
| Review only breast cancer cases versus variety of cancer cases? | 45 | 44 | 43 | 47 | 45 | < .01 |
Abbreviations: ACOS, American College of Surgeons; HMO, health maintenance organization.