What effect does physician "profiling" have on inpatient physician satisfaction and hospital length of stay?
BACKGROUND
2002 marked the first time that the rate of hospital spending in the United States out-paced the overall health care spending rate of growth since 1991. As hospital spending continues to grow and as reimbursement for hospital expenses has moved towards the prospective payment system, there is still increasing pressure to reduce costs. Hospitals have a major incentive to decrease resource utilization, including hospital length of stay. We evaluated whether physician profiling affects physician satisfaction and hospital length of stay, and assessed physicians' views concerning hospital cost containment and the quality of care they provide.


METHODS
To determine if physician profiling affects hospital length of stay and/or physician satisfaction, we used quasi-experimental with before-versus-after and intervention-versus-control comparisons of length of stay data collected at an intervention and six control hospitals. Intervention hospital physicians were informed their length of stay would be compared to their peers and were given a questionnaire assessing their experience.


RESULTS
Nearly half of attending pre-profiled physicians felt negative about the possibility of being profiled, while less than one-third of profiled physicians reported feeling negative about having been profiled. Nearly all physicians greatly enjoyed their ward month. Length of stay at the profiled site decreased by an additional 1/3 of a day in the profiling year, compared to the non-profiled sites (p < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
A relatively non-instrusive profiling intervention modestly reduced length of stay without adversely affecting physician satisfaction.
Zemencuk
Judith K
JK
Health Services Research & Development Field Program, Ann Arbor VA Center for Practice Management and Outcomes Research, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. judiz@umich.edu.
Hofer
Timothy P
TP
Hayward
Rodney A
RA
Moseley
Richard H
RH
Saint
Sanjay
S
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D019985:Benchmarking; D003363:Cost Control; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D005260:Female; D006302:Health Services Research; D006787:Hospitals, Veterans / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D008297:Male; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000191:economics / Q000523:psychology* / Q000592:standards; D008511:Medicine; D008875:Middle Aged; D015146:Midwestern United States; D010816:Physician Incentive Plans; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D013038:Specialization; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires