caa a22 4500 47574893X CHVBK 20180406123521.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170329e20000401xx s 000 0 eng 10.1023/A:1005568814163 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1023/A:1005568814163 Regional Variation in Physician Practice Pattern: An Examination of Technical and Cost Efficiency for Treating Sinusitis [Elektronische Daten] [Chih-Wen Pai, Yasar Ozcan, H. Jiang] Objective. An examination of the physician efficiency and resulting cost patterns by region. Data Sources. Virginia Medicaid sinusitis related claims for 1993 were aggregated to physician level (n = 178), and Area Resources File for 1993 was used to identify regions for evaluation. Study Design. The best practice performance in the usage of five resources (i.e., primary care physician visits, referral services, emergency room visits, prescriptions, laboratory tests) was identified using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Five regions in Virginia were identified according to regional planning to evaluate the variation in efficiency across these regions. Principal findings. Inefficient physicians consumed significantly more resources and were 48% more costly than efficient physicians. Substantial regional variation was found and mainly attributed to the differences in use of prescriptions and laboratory procedures. Urban-rural discrepancy may explain part of the variation. Conclusions. As this study reveals the existence of substantial variation in physician efficiency, actions should be taken to minimize the variation that is more affected by personal and structural factors. For example, information on efficient use of resources and corresponding patient outcomes can be disseminated to the attending physicians. Educational workshops can be conducted to allow sharing of experience between efficient and inefficient physicians. Efforts should also be directed to help inefficient physicians to adhere to practice guidelines. Plenum Publishing Corporation, 2000 physician benchmarking nationallicence practice behavior nationallicence efficiency nationallicence data envelopment analysis nationallicence Pai Chih-Wen Department of Health Administration, Virginia Commonwealth University, PO Box 980203, 23298-0203, Richmond, VA aut Ozcan Yasar Department of Health Administration, Virginia Commonwealth University, PO Box 980203, 23298-0203, Richmond, VA aut Jiang H. Department of Health Administration, Virginia Commonwealth University, PO Box 980203, 23298-0203, Richmond, VA aut Journal of Medical Systems Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum Publishers 24/2(2000-04-01), 103-117 0148-5598 24:2<103 2000 24 10916 https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005568814163 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005568814163 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Pai Chih-Wen Department of Health Administration, Virginia Commonwealth University, PO Box 980203, 23298-0203, Richmond, VA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Ozcan Yasar Department of Health Administration, Virginia Commonwealth University, PO Box 980203, 23298-0203, Richmond, VA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Jiang H. Department of Health Administration, Virginia Commonwealth University, PO Box 980203, 23298-0203, Richmond, VA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Journal of Medical Systems Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum Publishers 24/2(2000-04-01), 103-117 0148-5598 24:2<103 2000 24 10916 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer