Primary Care Provider Demographics and Engagement in Interprofessional Collaboration

Area of Science:

• Healthcare delivery
• Health services research
• Interprofessional education and practice

Background:

• Interprofessional care is crucial for achieving the quadruple aim in healthcare.
• Existing research identifies facilitators and barriers to interprofessional care but overlooks demographic influences.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether demographic differences, specifically gender, influence the extent of interprofessional collaboration among primary care providers (PCPs).

Main Methods:

• Utilized electronic health record data to assess PCP interprofessional collaboration based on patient visits with interprofessional team members over 14 months.
• Collected demographic data (gender, years in practice, provider type) from electronic health records and public sources.
• Employed linear regression to predict collaboration levels based on demographic indicators.

Main Results:

• The median percentage of patients with interprofessional team visits was 12.6%.
• Female PCPs had approximately 2% more of their patients visit an interprofessional team member compared to male PCPs, after controlling for patient panel age, PCP years in practice, and clinic.

Conclusions:

• Female providers exhibit a greater propensity for interprofessional collaboration by sharing patients with interprofessional teams more frequently than male providers.