Is. Kristiansen et G. Mooney, THE GENERAL-PRACTITIONERS USE OF TIME - IS IT INFLUENCED BY THE REMUNERATION SYSTEM, Social science & medicine, 37(3), 1993, pp. 393-399
The practice pattern of 116 general practitioners in 60 rural municipa
lities in Northern Norway was studied with respect to length of consul
tation, the weekly number of consultations and the proportion of retur
n visits. The average length of consultation was 14 mins, and only sli
ghtly lower for fee-for-service (FFS) doctors (13.7) than for salaried
ones (14.8). The weekly average number of surgery consultations was h
igher for FFS doctors than for the salaried (63 vs 49), but the weekly
number of hours spent consulting and the proportion of return visits
were about the same. Further, the characteristics of the health care s
ystem (doctor density and doctor turnover) were associated with variat
ions in the doctors' use of time. The most consistent effects, even if
weak, were the age and sex of the patients. The strongest effects on
the length of consultation were referrals and various medical procedur
es. This suggests that in this instance the medical condition at hand
would appear to have a greater influence on the doctors' use of time t
han either the remuneration system or other characteristics of the hea
lth care system. Although the association between the doctors' use of
time and the type of remuneration was weak, the study indicates that t
he type of remuneration does matter. Consequently, financial incentive
s can be used to influence the practice pattern of GPs.