Table 1. Clinic Characteristics.
| Characteristic | No. (%) | |
|---|---|---|
| PE-owned clinics (n = 204) | Controls (n = 407) | |
| No. of clinicians, median (IQR)a | ||
| MD/DO | 2 (1-3) | 1 (1-3) |
| PA/NP | 1 (1-2) | 1 (0-2) |
| No. of additional locations within the same practice, median (IQR)a | 39 (29-49) | 0 (0-1) |
| Miles between PE-owned and control clinics, median (IQR)b | 3.8 (1.4-8.9) | |
| Total No. of calls to be placed, No. of calls | 612 | 1221 |
| Clinic/insurance type combinations marked as appointment failure after 3 unsuccessful contact attempts | 6 (1.0) | 22 (1.8) |
| Excluded from analysis | 16 (2.6) | 52 (4.3) |
| Not accepting new patients | 9 (1.5) | 33 (2.7) |
| Same-day appointment mistakenly accepted by researcher (protocol was to not accept same-day appointments) | 2 (0.3) | 8 (0.7) |
| Clinic was marked as contacted in the call log but associated call data were missing | 5 (0.8) | 11 (0.9) |
Abbreviations: IQR, interquartile range; NP, nurse practitioner; PA, physician assistant; PE, private equity.
a
Based on information provided on clinic websites.
b
Clinic addresses were geocoded using Geocodio (Dotsquare LLC), and Euclidean distances between PE-owned and control clinics were calculated with a developed formula.31