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Physician use among patients receiving cancer chemotherapy
1Brown University Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912.
Background:
Little research has examined the volume and pattern of physician use or the scope of multiple physician use in patients with cancer.
Methods:
The authors studied a sample of 259 patients with advanced cancer who received outpatient chemotherapy at two hospital clinics and eight private oncology practices.
Results:
These patients reported regularly seeing an average of three different physicians an average of 15 times in 3 months. The number of physicians seen was strongly correlated with the number of reported visits (r = 0.65). Demographic and disease characteristics were associated only moderately with visit volume. Patients without a regular physician had a less concentrated pattern of visits to many doctors than did those with a regular doctor.
Conclusions:
This pattern of physician use among active treatment patients has not been described before and has implications for continuity of care.