TY - JOUR
T1 - Challenging Encounters and Within-Physician Practice Variability
AU - Chodick, Gabriel
AU - Goldstein, Yoav
AU - Shurtz, Ity
AU - Zeltzer, Dan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
PY - 2025/7
Y1 - 2025/7
N2 - We examine how physician decisions are affected by difficult cases—encounters with newly diagnosed cancer patients. Using detailed administrative data, we compare primary care physicians’ decisions in visits that occurred before and after difficult cases and matched comparison cases by the same physicians on other dates. Immediately following a difficult case, physicians increase referrals for common tests, including diagnostic tests unrelated to cancer. The effect lasts only for about an hour and is not driven by patient selection or schedule disruption. The results highlight difficult encounters as a source of variability in physician practice.
AB - We examine how physician decisions are affected by difficult cases—encounters with newly diagnosed cancer patients. Using detailed administrative data, we compare primary care physicians’ decisions in visits that occurred before and after difficult cases and matched comparison cases by the same physicians on other dates. Immediately following a difficult case, physicians increase referrals for common tests, including diagnostic tests unrelated to cancer. The effect lasts only for about an hour and is not driven by patient selection or schedule disruption. The results highlight difficult encounters as a source of variability in physician practice.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105011032245
U2 - 10.1162/rest_a_01314
DO - 10.1162/rest_a_01314
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AN - SCOPUS:105011032245
SN - 0034-6535
VL - 107
SP - 889
EP - 897
JO - Review of Economics and Statistics
JF - Review of Economics and Statistics
IS - 4
ER -
