title: Classifying physician practice style: a new approach using administrative data in British Columbia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Primary medical care is changing-more female providers, desire for better work-life balance, and increasing availability of walk-in clinics have altered service delivery. There is no uniform physician practice style, and understanding service availability and delivery requires analysis of family physicians' practice patterns, rather than just physician counts.
  
  
  METHODS
  This paper offers a new approach for describing the practice habits of primary care physicians. We use administrative data to identify activities associated with acting as "most responsible" physicians. We used British Columbia's administrative health care data from 2007/2008 to 2011/2012 to derive information regarding physicians, patients, and service delivery. We developed 5 variables to describe practice style: referrals, oversight, screening, initial prescribing for long-term medications, and repeat visits. Cluster analysis revealed 3 distinct groups of physicians.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Only 24% of the primary care physicians were assigned to the high-responsibility group, whereas 36% and 39% were in the low-responsibility and mixed-practice groups, respectively. All cluster variables follow a similar pattern, with the high-responsibility and low-responsibility physicians many multiples apart on the means and the mixed group falling in between. Several forms of sensitivity analysis confirmed the robustness of these results.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Physician practice patterns influence the effective supply of primary care. The fact that more than one third of British Columbia physicians are identified as "low responsibility" has implications for the delivery of primary care, both in ensuring that people have access to regular care and in insuring high-quality and comprehensive care.
authors: *UBC Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver †Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC ‡Access Consulting Ltd, Saskatoon, SK §Department of Family Medicine, The University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
authors: Kimberlyn
authors: K
authors: McGrail
authors: Ruth
authors: R
authors: Lavergne
authors: Steven J
authors: SJ
authors: Lewis
authors: Sandra L M
authors: SL
authors: Peterson
authors: Morris
authors: M
authors: Barer
authors: Scott R
authors: SR
authors: Garrison
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001955:British Columbia / Q000453:epidemiology; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009819:Office Visits / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010819:Physician's Role; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000145:classification* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000145:classification* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013223:Statistics as Topic