A study in JAMA Internal Medicine examined whether patient outcomes differed between male and female physicians.
Researchers from Cambridge, Mass.-based Harvard University analyzed a 20 percent sample of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries 65 years or older that were treated by general internists between Jan. 1, 2011 to Dec. 31, 2014.
The researchers examined 30-day mortality and readmission rates — adjusted for patient and physician characteristics and hospital fixed effects.
Here's what they found.
1. They examined:
- 1.5 million hospitalizations for 30-day mortality rate at a mean age of 80.2 years
- 1.5 million for analyses of readmission at a mean age of 80.1 years
2. Patients treated by female physicians had a 30-day mortality rate of 11.07 percent to 11.49 percent; they also had a lower 30-day readmission rate of 15.02 percent to 15.57 percent.
3. The findings were unaffected when restricting the analysis to patients treated by hospitalists.
4. The researchers conclude that their findings are similar to other studies, and they estimate "that approximately 32,000 fewer patients would die if male physicians could achieve the same outcomes as female physicians every year."
They added, "The effect would be even larger if the associations between physician sex and patient outcomes also hold for non-Medicare populations."
