Table 1.
Patient and physician characteristics, according to a physician’s medical school US News & World Report (USNWR) ranking for primary care in 2002. Values are numbers (percentages) unless stated otherwise
| Characteristics | USNWR ranking (primary care), 2002 | P value | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top 20 | ≥21 | ||
| Physicians | |||
| No of physicians | 4039 | 26 283 | — |
| Mean (SE) physician’s age (years) | 46.9 (0.2) | 45.0 (0.08) | <0.001 |
| Women | 1329 (32.9) | 8121 (30.9) | 0.08 |
| Credentials: | |||
| MD (allopathic) | 4013 (99.4) | 23 008 (87.5) | <0.001 |
| DO (osteopathic) | 26 (0.6) | 3275 (12.5) | |
| Patients | |||
| No of Medicare hospital admissions, 2011-15 | 105 617 | 890 595 | — |
| Mean (SE) patient’s age (years) | 76.0 (0.08) | 76.0 (0.02) | 0.74 |
| Women | 63 477 (60.1) | 532 577 (59.8) | 0.08 |
| Race/ethnicity: | |||
| White | 84 601 (80.1) | 713 368 (80.1) | 0.90 |
| Black | 12 991 (12.3) | 109 543 (012.3) | 0.96 |
| Hispanic | 4436 (4.2) | 39 186 (4.4) | 0.02 |
| Other | 3591 (3.4) | 28 449 (3.2) | 0.054 |
| Mean of median (SE) household income ($) | 56 349 (101) | 56 284 (29) | 0.55 |
| Medicaid status | 29 679 (28.1) | 252 039 (28.3) | 0.32 |
| Comorbidities: | |||
| Congestive heart failure | 30 630 (29.0) | 255 601 (28.7) | 0.14 |
| COPD | 24 081 (22.8) | 203 056 (22.8) | 0.69 |
| Diabetes | 27 651 (26.2) | 229 418 (25.8) | 0.03 |
| Hypertension | 55 027 (52.1) | 459 876 (51.3) | 0.003 |
| Chronic kidney disease | 32 742 (31.0) | 269 851 (30.3) | 0.002 |
| Ischaemic heart disease | 35 699 (33.8) | 297 459 (33.4) | 0.09 |
| Cancer | 10 668 (10.1) | 89 060 (10.0) | 0.81 |
| Depression | 23 131 (21.9) | 194 150 (21.8) | 0.44 |
$
1.00 (£0.77; €0.85).
COPD=chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Physicians within the same hospital were compared by fitting ordinary least square regression models adjusting for hospital fixed effects, and then standard marginalization was calculated.
Standard errors were clustered at physician level.