Evaluation of medical center support for rural physicians.

Abstract

Professional isolation remains a problem for rural physicians. To address the problem, a university medical center established a Physician Support Office (PSO). The PSO offered rural physicians toll-free telephone access to patient referral, patient follow-up, library reference, and drug information services. A newsletter was also published. The service was evaluated using a quasi-experimental design. Physicians in the experimental area felt there was improvement in several medical center services, compared to physicians in the control area. Provision of library services, referral services and a newsletter contributed significantly to the usefulness of the PSO program. Nevertheless, the PSO did not produce a significant improvement in rural physicians' overall feeling of general medical center support.