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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/23759
Description
Title
Referral behavior in a prepaid group practice
Author(s)
Jin, Ki-Nam
Issue Date
1991
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Flood, Ann Barry
Department of Study
Social Work
Sociology, Public and Social Welfare
Discipline
Social Work
Sociology, Public and Social Welfare
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Social Work
Sociology, Public and Social Welfare
Language
eng
Abstract
This research intends to identify certain factors which are associated with physician's rate of referral of patients to other physicians and to model and test the complex relationships among these factors. Considering the rise of health care cost and the emerging importance of cooperative relations in the health care field, referral behavior, which has both economic and quality implications, needs to be elucidated. Previous studies, however, fail to derive a systematic knowledge of referral behavior.
This study addressed the referral behavior of primary care physicians within a prepaid group practice in an innovative manner. We attempted: (1) to develop a method of creating episode-based referral rate; and (2) to develop and examine a conceptual model using physicians' personal characteristics (e.g., sex, specialty type, professional qualification, and career stage), organizational-structural characteristics (e.g., years in the organization, work load, committee membership, and power), and organizational-cultural characteristics (e.g., perceptions of others' practice style and attitudes toward patients) to predict referral rates.
Through the analyses of the effects of three types of physicians' attributes, we conclude that the specialty type was the major factor to explain variation of referral rates. In addition, the effect of specialty type appears to be independent of organizational-structural as well as organizational-cultural characteristics of physicians. Our finding implies that the practice style physicians acquired through education and socialization in their specialty takes precedence in influencing the referral decision-making over the work environment where the practice behavior is actually occurring.
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