RURAL AND URBAN DIFFERENCES IN PHYSICIAN RESOURCE USE FOR LOW-RISK OBSTETRICS

Objective. To explore the hypothesis that rural obstetricians (OBs) an d family physicians (FPs) utilized fewer resources during the care of the low-risk women who initially booked with them than did their urban counterparts of the same specialties. Data Sources/Study Design. A st ratified random sample of Washington state rural and urban OBs and FPs was selected during 1989. A participation rate of 89 percent yielded 209 participating physicians. The prenatal and intrapartum medical rec ords of a random sample of the low-risk patients who initiated care wi th the sampled providers during a one-year period were abstracted in d etail and analyzed with the physician as the unit of analysis. Complet e data for 1,683 patients were collected. Resource use elements (e.g., urine culture) were combined by standardizing them with average charg e data so that aggregate resource use could be analyzed. Intraspecialt y comparisons for resource use by category and overall were performed. Findings/Conclusions. Results show that rural physicians use fewer ov erall resources in caring for nonreferred low-risk-booking obstetric p atients than do their urban colleagues. Resource use unit expenditures showed the hypothesized pattern for both specialties for total, intra partum, and prenatal care with the exception of FPs for prenatal care. Approximately 80 percent of the resource units used by each physician type were related to hospital care. No differences were shown in patt erns of care for most clinically important aspects of care (e.g., cesa rean delivery rates), and no evidence suggested that outcomes differed . The overall differences were due to specific components of care (e.g ., fewer intrapartum hospital days and less epidural anesthesia).