Health care seeking behaviors of family practitioners

Questionnaires were sent to 358 family physicians in the state of Michigan, asking which medical specialists provided most of the primary medical care for themselves and their families, and which type of specialists they would attend for ten specific medical problems. A total of 221 (62%) of the questionnaires were adequately completed and returned. They indicated that a majority of the primary care provided respondents and their family members was by a physician other than a family practitioner. Care seeking behaviors were not significantly different between practitioners who were family practice residency trained and those who were not, except in the care given to the respondent's spouse, when a family practitioner was used more often. The responses also revealed that the majority of office visits for three of the specific medical problem categories were made to family practitioners, while in four other categories the majority of visits were to specialists. Approximately half of the visits in the remaining three categories were made to family practitioners. There is an apparent discrepancy between the tenet that family physicians can competently care for a vast majority of medical problems and their actual care seeking behaviors.