The Independent Physician -- Going, Going . . .

Follow up to yesterday's post - today's NEJM is about the same issue - consolidation of practices -

NEJM -- The Independent Physician -- Going, Going . . .

This article focuses on impact on quality of care, something I haven't done much thinking on.

" The only aspect of this question that has received attention from researchers has been the effect on the quality of care, and the results have so far been mixed. One recent report found that hospital-owned or health plan–owned physician organizations were more likely than independent physicians to engage in quality-improvement or health-promotion activities.² Others have found no significant difference in quality of care between independent and employee physicians³ or that quality of care was somewhat higher among independent physicians.⁴"

Will be interesting to see how this literature evolves. Seems like there is a parallels from inpatient research investigating restriction to physician work hours, requiring more patient hand-offs (with mixed findings on impact on quality of care). But on the other hand, being part of a bigger practice affords you the opportunity to leverage scale to engage in quality improvement measures.