2021/09/14
Keio University
A joint research group, including Project Assistant Professor Hirotaka Kato from the Keio University Graduate School of Health Management, Assistant Professor Yusuke Tsugawa from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Associate Professor Anupam B. Jena and Assistant Professor Jose F. Figueroa from Harvard University, has used large-scale medical data on elderly individuals aged 65 and over in the United States to reveal that patients treated by physicians with fewer annual clinical workdays have higher mortality rates than those treated by physicians with more annual clinical workdays. When physicians were divided into quartiles based on their annual number of clinical workdays, the mortality rate for patients treated by physicians in the lowest quartile was 10.5%, while the rate for patients treated by physicians in the highest quartile was 9.6%, a difference of 0.9%. This difference is considered clinically significant.
In the United States, the number of physicians working part-time in clinical practice is increasing for various reasons, including family care (such as childcare), research, and administrative duties. However, it has been largely unexamined whether the quality of medical care provided by part-time physicians is comparable to that provided by their full-time counterparts. This study, therefore, investigated the relationship between the annual number of clinical workdays for physicians and patient mortality rates, focusing on patients emergently admitted to hospitals and treated by hospitalists (internists who specialize in inpatient care).
The results of this study suggest that part-time clinical practice may lead to an increase in patient mortality, and that additional support for physicians working part-time may be necessary to prevent such outcomes.
The findings of this research were published online in the US medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine on September 13, 2021 (US Eastern Standard Time).
Please see below for the full press release.