Impact of primary care physicians working part-time on patient care: A scoping review

Increasing numbers of primary care physicians (PCPs) are reducing their working hours. This decline may affect the workforce and the care provided to patients.

This scoping review aims to determine the impact of PCPs working part-time on quality of patient care.

A systematic search was conducted using the databases PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, and the Cochrane Library. Peer-reviewed, original articles with either quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods designs, published after 2000 and written in any language were considered. The search strings combined the two concepts: part-time work and primary care. Studies were included if they examined any effect of PCPs working part-time on quality of patient care.

The initial search resulted in 2,323 unique studies. Abstracts were screened, and information from full texts on the study design, part-time and quality of patient care was extracted. The final dataset included 14 studies utilising data from 1996 onward. The studies suggest that PCPs working part-time may negatively affect patient care, particularly the access and continuity of care domains. Clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction seem mostly unaffected or even improved.

There is evidence of both negative and positive effects of PCPs working part-time on quality of patient care. Approaches that mitigate negative effects of part-time work while maintaining positive effects should be implemented.