[The utilization of Arizona medical services by residents of Mexico]

Arizona physicians practicing in the four counties bordering Mexico were surveyed regarding the use of their services by residents of Mexico. One hundred eighty-eight (79%) of the 239 respondents to the mail survey reported seeing at least one Mexican resident per week during 1988. Ninety-nine of these physicians (53%) practiced in Tucson; 89 (47%) practiced elsewhere in the four border counties. The mean number of Mexican resident patients seen per week was nine (9% of total) for border physicians and 5 (6% of total) for Tucson physicians. The most frequent responses from border physicians asked to list the most common health conditions of their Mexican resident patients were injury and poisoning (21%) and circulatory diseases (11%), while the most frequent responses of Tucson physicians were circulatory diseases (10%) and digestive diseases (9%). Problems and solutions in the border care health system are mainly related to quality of care and health care financing.