Table 1.
Characteristics of 2008 Health Tracking Physician Survey Sample According to Percentage of Hospitalized Patients Treated by a Hospitalist*
| Overall | Percentage of hospitalized patients treated by a hospitalist | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 % (none) | 1–25 % (low) | 26–75 % (medium) | 76–100 % (high) | ||
| Weighted N = 97,355 | Weighted N = 29,602 | Weighted N = 24,385 | Weighted N = 11,065 | Weighted N = 32,303 | |
| Specialty | |||||
| General internal medicine, N (%) | 32,799 (33.7) | 10,637 (36.6) | 7,850 (32.2) | 3,751 (33.9) | 10,366 (32.1) |
| Family practice, N (%) | 36,644 (37.6) | 9,169 (31.6) | 9,991 (41.0) | 3,923 (35.5) | 13,390 (41.5) |
| General practice, N (%) | 3,145 (3.2) | 793 (2.7) | 1,066 (4.4) | 152 (1.4) | 1,118 (3.5) |
| General pediatrics, N (%) | 22,986 (23.6) | 8,233 (28.3) | 4,975 (20.4) | 3,043 (27.5) | 6,577 (20.4) |
| Pediatric internal medicine, N (%) | 506 (0.5) | 0 (0.0) | 237 (1.0) | 108 (1.0) | 158 (0.5) |
| Adolescent medicine, N (%) | 224 (0.2) | 73 (0.3) | 80 (0.3) | 0 (0.0) | 68 (0.2) |
| Geriatric medicine, N (%) | 1,061 (1.1) | 157 (0.5) | 190 (0.8) | 89 (0.8) | 627 (1.9) |
| Productivity | |||||
| Number of hospital visits per week, mean (SE)† | 9.8 (0.5) | 16.0 (1.0) | 11.8 (0.9) | 6.8 (1.1) | 3.7 (0.7) |
| Number of office and outpatient clinic visits per week, mean (SE)† | 92.5 (1.7) | 90.1 (4.0) | 89.7 (3.0) | 90.7 (3.2) | 97.3 (2.8) |
| Direct patient care time per visit, mean (SE)†, minutes | 28.8 (0.7) | 28.6 (1.4) | 29.5 (1.6) | 28.4 (1.1) | 28.6 (0.8) |
| Physician characteristics | |||||
| Male, N (%) | 64,096 (65.8) | 19,409 (66.8) | 17,729 (72.7) | 6,840 (61.8) | 19,757 (61.2) |
| White, non-Hispanic, N (%) | 71,703 (73.7) | 21,880 (75.3) | 17,786 (72.9) | 7,891 (71.3) | 23,739 (73.5) |
| International medical graduates, N (%) | 22,215 (22.8) | 7,962 (27.4) | 6,067 (24.9) | 2,208 (20.0) | 5,830 (18.0) |
| Years in practice | |||||
| 1–10 years, N (%) | 30,378 (31.2) | 9,675 (33.3) | 8,008 (32.8) | 3,872 (35.0) | 8,644 (26.8) |
| 11–20 years, N (%) | 31,910 (32.8) | 9,819 (33.8) | 7,021 (28.8) | 3,012 (27.2) | 11,875 (36.8) |
| 21+ years, N (%) | 35,066 (36.0) | 9,568 (32.9) | 9,356 (38.4) | 4,182 (37.8) | 11,783 (36.5) |
| Time spent on email or phone conversation with other physicians a day | |||||
| 0–1 h, N (%) | 62,697 (64.4) | 18,662 (64.2) | 15,199 (62.3) | 7,438 (67.2) | 21,051 (65.2) |
| 1+ hour, N (%) | 34,658 (35.6) | 10,400 (35.8) | 9,186 (37.7) | 3,627 (32.8) | 11,252 (34.8) |
| Compensation linked to productivity, N (%) | 68,661 (70.5) | 19,906 (68.5) | 17,742 (72.8) | 7,981 (72.1) | 22,662 (70.2) |
| Malpractice concern, agree/agree strongly, N (%) | 58,789 (60.4) | 17,681 (60.8) | 14,364 (58.9) | 6,619 (59.8) | 19,797 (61.3) |
| Percent of patients having chronic conditions, mean (SE)† | 53.8 (0.9) | 53.5 (1.6) | 54.0 (1.6) | 52.3 (2.6) | 54.3 (1.5) |
| Practice characteristics | |||||
| Type | |||||
| Solo or 2 physicians, N (%) | 34,013 (34.9) | 10,905 (37.5) | 9,243 (37.9) | 4,350 (39.3) | 9,313 (28.8) |
| Group ≥ 3 physicians, N (%) | 44,270 (45.5) | 13,692 (47.1) | 10,882 (44.6) | 4,041 (36.5) | 15,400 (47.7) |
| HMO, N (%) | 5,190 (5.3) | 546 (1.9) | 645 (2.6) | 545 (4.9) | 3,444 (10.7) |
| Medical school, N (%) | 3,246 (3.3) | 767 (2.6) | 1,302 (5.3) | 495 (4.5) | 669 (2.1) |
| Hospital-based, N (%) | 5,841 (6.0) | 1,530 (5.3) | 1,153 (4.7) | 693 (6.3) | 2,437 (7.5) |
| Other, N (%) | 4,795 (4.9) | 1,621 (5.6) | 1,162 (4.8) | 942 (8.5) | 1,040 (3.2) |
| Size | |||||
| 1–100 physicians, N (%) | 86,142 (88.5) | 27,481 (94.6) | 22,765 (93.4) | 9,494 (85.8) | 25,892 (80.2) |
| 101+ physicians, N (%) | 11,213 (11.5) | 1,581 (5.4) | 1,620 (6.6) | 1,571 (14.2) | 6,411 (19.8) |
| Use of IT, % | 47,469 (48.8) | 13,121 (45.1) | 11,995 (49.2) | 5,661 (51.2) | 16,449 (50.9) |
| Source of practice revenue | |||||
| Percent from Medicare, mean (SE)† | 29.5 (0.7) | 32.1 (1.3) | 29.8 (1.3) | 26.7 (2.1) | 27.8 (1.2) |
| Percent from Medicaid, mean (SE)† | 17.7 (0.6) | 18.0 (1.2) | 19.2 (1.2) | 19.2 (2.1) | 15.7 (1.2) |
| Percent from capitated or other prepaid basis, mean (SE)† | 15.1 (0.7) | 10.1 (1.0) | 13.3 (1.3) | 19.0 (2.3) | 19.8 (1.5) |
| Market characteristics | |||||
| Geographic region | |||||
| Rural, % | 16,465 (16.9) | 7,988 (27.5) | 5,375 (22.0) | 867 (7.8) | 2,086 (6.5) |
| HPSA, % | 39,589 (40.7) | 10,931 (37.6) | 8,595 (35.2) | 5,623 (50.8) | 14,237 (44.1) |
| Socioeconomic | |||||
| Median household income, mean (SE)†, $ | 55,399.5 (401.6) | 52,661.5 (779.8) | 54,192.7 (879.4) | 55,125.3 (1,170.6) | 58,913.4 (724.6) |
| Percent of uninsured, mean (SE)† | 15.4 (0.1) | 15.5 (0.3) | 15.0 (0.3) | 16.1 (0.5) | 15.4 (0.3) |
| Population density, mean (SE)†, people/mi2 | 2,290.0 (181.7) | 1,477.2 (203.3) | 2,452.0 (395.9) | 3,199.5 (688.7) | 2,601.1 (408.2) |
| Health care resources and utilization | |||||
| Total hospitalists per 100,000 population, mean (SE)† | 6.0 (0.2) | 4.8 (0.3) | 5.6 (0.3) | 7.7 (0.8) | 6.7 (0.3) |
| Total admissions per 1,000 population, mean (SE)† | 136.3 (2.3) | 129.6 (3.3) | 141.3 (4.7) | 141.3 (6.2) | 137.0 (4.9) |
| Total ED visits per 1,000 population, mean (SE)† | 430.9 (7.2) | 447.0 (8.8) | 442.5 (12.6) | 410.6 (14.6) | 414.3 (17.6) |
| Total outpatient days per 1,000 population, mean (SE)† | 2,510.7 (68.6) | 2,544.1 (84.4) | 2,506.9 (105.0) | 2,436.8 (173.4) | 2,508.3 (167.2) |
| Percent of Medicare managed care penetration, mean (SE)† | 22.0 (0.4) | 18.0 (0.6) | 21.2 (0.8) | 25.2 (1.2) | 25.2 (0.6) |
*Data Source: Center for Studying Health System Change, Health Tracking Physician Survey, 2008 Restricted Use Data File. All analyses were weighted to produce national population estimates. The total weighted population was 97,355 primary care physicians
†Mean reports include standard errors of national estimates based on complex sample design
HMO health maintenance organization; IT information technology; HPSA health professional shortage area; ED emergency department