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Re: Do female patients prefer to be treated by female physicians?From: William D. McIntosh, MD (anonymous@obgyn.net)Sat, 14 Nov 1998 13:57:43 -0600 (CST)
At Thu, 12 Nov 1998, Jessica wrote: > >Thank you for pointing me towards the "Male/female OBGYN" thread in the >forum. It was very helpful and interesting. > >Perhaps I need to clarify my question. I stated that "anecdotally, >women do seem to express a preference for being treated by a female >physician." I did not make any claims about whether female physicians >actually provide better care. In fact, if female physicians provide >care similar to that provided by male physicians, this preference by >patients for female physicians is a discrimination against male >physicians. > >After reviewing the posts under the "Male/Female OBGYN" thread, I found >responses which confirmed this hypothesis. Some patients did express a >preference for female obgyns, even sometimes acknowledging that this was >not based on knowledge of differences in quality of care. Some male >obgyns recounted instances in which they were discriminated against by >patients. They even commented that a well-qualified male obgyn can have >a more difficult time setting up a practice than a less qualified female >obgyn. > >Female obgyns may or may not provide better care. (I offer no opinion >on that question.) However, the posts preliminarily confirm that some >patients prefer to be treated by a female obgyn and that male obgyns do >experience lower patient demand. I'm merely interested in quantifying >these facts and in investigating their implications. > >One respondent writes, "I don't see how it would be important for me to >know what a survey of women says about what sex they prefer their >physicians to be. It wouldn't affect my decision one way or another. It >might be interesting as a curiosity, but the market will drive the wages >of the preferred doctors up anyways." > >The market driving up the wages of preferred doctors is exactly what I'm >looking for. That's the kind of thing economists study, and it's yet >another way to get a handle on the extent of wage inequality and >discrimination. In nearly all occupations, men still earn higher wages >for the same skills. I'm trying to see if in this particular case, the >reverse is true: do women obgyns earn more as a result of this >discrimination in their favor? My preliminary results seem to show that >wowen obgyns are not earning more, even if they are preferred by >patients. This also says something about discrimination. > >Thanks for the great discussion. It's been incredibly helpful in >improving my understanding of the issues involved. I'd love to hear >more responses and I still continue my search for any survey or other >data, however peripheral. > >-- >Jessica Wolpaw I may have an unusual perspective on this, as both my wife and I are OB/GYNs. We both graduated from well regarded US medical schools, and were in the same residency program only one year apart, and can therefore be considered to be equal in training and career track location, at that time. I then spent 2 years on a medical school faculty while my wife was a flight surgeon and OB in the Air Force. When it was time to go into private practice, my wife could have commanded a 10% higher salary than I, had we chosen to work for someone else, exclusively because she is a woman. You named the reason. Women can build a practice more quickly than men, and reimbursement is based on the number of patients seen, and proceedures performed. Luckily for me, she chose to have pity on her estrogen challenged husband, and went into practice with me. Also lucky for me, I was here a year before she finished in the USAF, otherwise I would have had a hard time building a practice with her starting at the same time. There is another aspect to the reimbursement situation. To no one's surprise, women and men sometimes have different expectations about work. Studies indicate that Board Certified OB/GYNs that are women are statistically much more likely to work part time, job share, take long leaves of absence and so on than their male counterparts. They are also more likely to take salaried positions rather than the traditional fee-for-service practice. These are all lifestyle choices, the effect of which is reduce income and increase free time and flexibility. My wife makes as much or more than I do, because we work the same amount, but she is already looking forward to her next maternity leave, and the possibility of coming back part-time. It does not matter to the insurance company whether the bill says W. McIntosh, MD, or L. McIntosh, MD as to payement, only the number of those bills are presented.
-- William D. McIntosh, MD Clarksville, TN
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