Table 2

Physician Survey Responses (N = 142)

Pre-Profiled Attendings n (%) n = 38

Profiled Attendings n (%) n = 36

Pre-Profiled Senior Residents n (%) n = 37

Profiled Senior Residents n (%) n = 31

ENJOYMENT OF WARD MONTH – AGREED THAT:

"I greatly enjoyed my most recent ward month"

34 (89)

32 (89)

31 (84)

25 (81)

QUALITY OF CARE – AGREED THAT:

"I was very involved in the day-to-day care of the patients on my service."

34 (89)

30 (83)

"My attending was very involved in all important patient care decisions."

23 (62)

12 (39)

"I allowed my residents considerable autonomy in patient care decisions."

38 (100)

35 (97)

"My attending allowed me considerable autonomy in making patient care decisions."

32 (86)

29 (94)

"My ward team provided extremely high quality care to our patients."

37 (97)

33 (92)

"I provided extremely high quality care to my patients."

33 (89)

28 (90)

FEELINGS ABOUT PROFILING

"How do you think you would feel about being 'profiled?'?" OR "How did you feel about being 'profiled?"'

Positive

11 (29)

6 (17)

Indifferent

10 (26)

20 (56)

Negative

17 (45)

10 (28)*

PERCEPTION OF PROFILING EFFECT ON PATIENT CARE – AGREED THAT:

"In general, being 'profiled' will cause most physicians to discharge some patients earlier than they would have normally."

13 (34)

3 (8)*

"In general, being 'profiled' will cause most physicians to decrease the ordering of some tests and/or procedures."

17 (46)

5 (14)*

PROFILING EFFECT (QUESTIONS ASKED ONLY OF PHYSICIANS WHO WERE PROFILED)

Reported that they tried "to become more involved than usual in the care of the patients on [their] service during their profiling month.

16 (46)

Agreed that "being 'profiled' caused me to discharge some patients earlier than I would have normally."

0 (0)

Agreed that "I sometimes felt pressured to discharge a patient from the hospital prematurely."

2 (6)

"Did you try to decrease your patients' lengths' of stay?" Responded "Yes:"

5 (14)

Agreed that "being 'profiled' caused me to decrease the ordering of some tests and/or procedures."

0 (0)

Agreed that "I sometimes felt pressured not to use certain ancillary tests/services."

0 (0)

"Did you try to decrease ordering of tests and procedures?" Responded "Yes:"

4 (11)

*p <.05 for differences between physician groups

Zemencuk et al. BMC Health Services Research 2006 6:45   doi:10.1186/1472-6963-6-45