The surgical role of family physicians

A sample of Board-certified family physicians was surveyed regarding their role in providing operative surgical care. Twenty-one per cent reported operating and 40 per cent assisting at surgery. The percentage operating was 10 per cent in the East and 29 per cent in the West, while assisting was 22 per cent in the East and 57 per cent in the West. The frequency with which family doctors functioned as surgical operators was found to be inversely related to the perceived number of surgeons practicing in the local community, ranging from 16 per cent in communities where respondents perceived many surgeons to 56 per cent in communities with no surgeons. An interaction effect between geography and the relative number of surgeons in the local community appeared to influence whether the family physician functioned as operator or assistant. There was no independent relationship between community population size and operating by family physicians. The study suggests that the surgical role of the family physician develops in response to his local practice setting, and that the role cannot be defined from data averaged on a national scale.