Table 1.
Characteristics of Physicians Caring for Patients with Lung and/or Colorectal Cancer
| No. of Patients (%) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary Care Physician n=1,562 |
Specialty Physician n=2,144 |
Pa | |
| Physician characteristics | |||
| Gender | <.01 | ||
| Male | 1,201(77) | 1,861(87) | |
| Female | 361(23) | 283(13) | |
| Age | <.01 | ||
| <40 years | 267(17) | 327(15) | |
| 40–59 years | 1,067(68) | 1,422(66) | |
| 60+ years | 228(15) | 395(18) | |
| Specialty | - | ||
| Surgeon | 841(39) | ||
| Medical oncologist | 493(23) | ||
| Radiation oncologist | 223(10) | ||
| Other medical specialist | 587(27) | ||
| International medical graduate | .99 | ||
| Yes | 333(16) | ||
| No | 1,321(85) | 1,811(85) | |
| Board-certified | <.01 | ||
| Yes | 1,406(90) | 2,014(94) | |
| No | 156(10) | 130(6) | |
| Teaching medical students/residents | <.01 | ||
| Yes | 525(34) | 1,031(48) | |
| No | 1,037(66) | 1,113(52) | |
| Practice characteristics | |||
| Practice setting | <.01 | ||
| Hospital | 126(8) | 869(41) | |
| Office | |||
| Solo | 353(23) | 299(14) | |
| Single-specialty | 397(25) | 588(27) | |
| Multi-specialty | 566(36) | 330(15) | |
| Other | 82(5) | 27(1) | |
| Community health center | 38(2) | 30(1) | |
| Government-owned practice | .92 | ||
| Yes | 33(2) | 44(2) | |
| No | 1,528(98) | 2,099(98) | |
| Practice size (# physicians) | .34 | ||
| <20 | 1,152(74) | 1,738(81) | |
| 20+ | 410(26) | 406(19) | |
| % patients in managed care plans | .02 | ||
| <30% | 407(26) | 602(28) | |
| 30–89% | 743(48) | 1,092(51) | |
| 90–100% | 413(26) | 450(21) | |
| # medical record components always availableb | .32 | ||
| 0 | 14(<1) | 5(<1) | |
| 1 | 23(1) | 7(<1) | |
| 2 | 39(3) | 33(2) | |
| 3 | 119(8) | 126(6) | |
| 4 | 167(11) | 255(12) | |
| 5 | 234(15) | 407(19) | |
| 6 | 964(62) | 1,311(61) | |
| Income increase from referring patients | <.01 | ||
| Yes | 15(1) | 47(2) | |
| No | 1,521(99) | 2,072(98) | |
| Data collection site | <.01 | ||
| Cancer Research Network—5 HMOsc | 202(13) | 179(8) | |
| Northern California—8 counties | 340(22) | 565(26) | |
| State of Alabama | 210(13) | 326(15) | |
| Los Angeles County | 409(26) | 562(26) | |
| State of Iowa | 235(15) | 205(10) | |
| State of North Carolina—22 counties | 166(11) | 307(14) | |
| Physician experiences | |||
| Barrier score | <.01 | ||
| 1.0–1.9 | 716(46) | 852(40) | |
| 2.0–2.9 | 657(42) | 1011(48) | |
| 3.0–3.9 | 152(19) | 234(11) | |
| 4.0–5.0 | 27(1) | 23(1) | |
| Career satisfaction | <.01 | ||
| Very satisfied | 623(40) | 1,053(49) | |
| Somewhat satisfied | 644(41) | 798(37) | |
| Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied | 100(6) | 75(4) | |
| Somewhat dissatisfied | 158(10) | 183(9) | |
| Very dissatisfied | 37(2) | 35(2) | |
a
Differences between PCPs and specialists were tested using Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney for ordinal variables and chi-square for categorical variables.
b
Medical record components include cancer surgery operative, chemotherapy treatment plan or summary, radiation therapy treatment plan or summary, general medicine, radiology imaging, and pathology notes/reports.
c
Health Maintenance Organization