Abstract
Many family physicians still practice at an old age. Nevertheless, their practice patterns have scarcely been studied. To address this lack of research, the current study analyzed claims data for a total of 2,018,440 visits to 171 family physicians in 2011 sourced from Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database. Family physicians aged 65 years and over had fewer patients (mean: 2330, standard deviation (SD): 2019) and visits (mean: 9220, SD: 8600) than younger physicians had. Furthermore, the average age of the patients who visited physicians aged 65 years and over was 51.9 (SD: 21.5) years, significantly higher than that of patients who visited younger physicians. However, the proportions of visits for upper respiratory tract infections, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and dyslipidemia did not differ significantly among different age groups of physicians. In the future, the manpower planning of physicians should take into consideration the age structure and work profile of physicians.
Highlights
IntroductionPhysicians have no statutory retirement age [1,2,3]. According to the 2015State Physician Workforce Data, 28.4 percent of actively licensed physicians in 2014 in USA were 60 years of age or older [4]
In most countries, physicians have no statutory retirement age [1,2,3]
While most studies of this subject have focused on more experienced internists [7] and senior surgeons involved in complex procedures [8,14], few have dealt with older family physicians, especially on a nationwide scale
Summary
Physicians have no statutory retirement age [1,2,3]. According to the 2015State Physician Workforce Data, 28.4 percent of actively licensed physicians in 2014 in USA were 60 years of age or older [4]. While most studies of this subject have focused on more experienced internists [7] and senior surgeons involved in complex procedures [8,14], few have dealt with older family physicians, especially on a nationwide scale. In Taiwan, family medicine (FM) is the main specialty that provides primary care services including minor illnesses, preventive healthcare, health checkups, and referral for major disease in the community [15]. Some health services such as child preventive care and cancer screening are optional for family physicians. Under the National Health Insurance (NHI) system, patients are able to choose or change their healthcare providers freely, and physicians are paid by the fee-for-service payment system [15,16]. The points of comparison included service volume, service content, and the
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