Working In Primary Care: Two New Surveys
Two new surveys take the temperature of the primary care working environment.
In the first, a collaboration between the Medical Group Management Association and the Association of Staff Physician Recruiters, recruiters took a median of six months to fill positions for internal medicine or family practice physicians, according to the In-House Recruitment Benchmarking Survey: 2010 Report Based on 2008 Data.
Among the findings:
– It cost less to recruit specialists, due to the economic downturn and a 30% rise in the use of Internet job boards as a primary recruitment method.
– It takes longer to fill a position in non-metropolitan areas, where the impact of the primary care shortage is greatest.
The second may be news of the obvious. Physicians feel that defensive medicine hampers their ability to deliver care. But to quantify how much so, Jackson Healthcare, a recruiting and hospital management group, conducted its third survey.
The company compiled 1,400 physician respondents (124,572 invited; 1.13% response rate; 95% confidence level: +/-1.7%) of doctors who’d participated in a confidential online survey in an effort to quantify the costs and impact of defensive medicine.
Among the results:
– 76% reported that defensive medicine decreases patients’ access to healthcare.
– 72% reported that it negatively impacts patient care.
– 71% reported it has had a negative effect on the way they view patients.
– 67% reported that defensive medicine comes between the doctor and patient.
– 57% reported that defensive medicine hampers their decision-making ability.
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
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