Characteristics of primary care physicians and their practices in Alberta in 2015, categorized by whether the service day activities method and the income percentiles method agreed on the determination of practice status (part-time or full-time)
| Characteristic | PTAGREE n = 931 | PTSFTI n = 239 | FTSPTI n = 251 | FTAGREE n = 1900 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physician characteristics | ||||
| Sex, male, no. (%) | 355 (38.1) | 157 (65.7) | 108 (43.0) | 1344 (70.7) |
| κ* | 0.677 (0.651–0.704) | |||
| No. of years since graduation, mean ± SD | 20.3 (13.8) | 20.8 (12.0) | 22.5 (11.5) | |
| International medical graduate, no. (%) | 164 (17.6) | 36 (15.1) | 47 (18.7) | 747 (39.4) |
| Service days | ||||
| No. of service days with ≥ 10 patients, mean ± SD | 70.0 (39.9) | 110.8 (25.3) | 166.6 (22.6) | 206.5 (38.0) |
| No. of service days with ≥ 20 patients, mean ± SD | 30.9 (29.5) | 82.8 (33.6) | 67.99 (42.1) | 166.3 (56.7) |
| No. of service days with ≥ 1 patient, mean ± SD | 107.2 (56.3) | 148.2 (38.0) | 189.0 (28.8) | 227.8 (40.5) |
| No. of service days per week with ≥ 10 patients, mean | 1.5 | 2.41 | 3.6 | 4.5 |
| No. of service days per week with ≥ 1 patient, mean | 2.3 | 3.22 | 4.1 | 5.0 |
| No. of service days with < 10 patients, mean ± SD | 37.20 (45.8) | 37.37 (47.3) | 22.45 (20.5) | 21.27 (23.4) |
| No. of weekend service days with ≥ 10 patients, mean ± SD | 8.08 (10.2) | 24.07 (14.5) | 8.63 (12.6) | 22.42 (20.2) |
| No. of weekend service days with ≥ 20 patients, mean ± SD | 5.54 (8.7) | 21.05 (14.3) | 4.90 (9.5) | 17.65 (18.9) |
| Gross annual gross revenue, $, median (IQR) | 122 716 (72 135–165 991) | 300 327 (254 836–348 294) | 201 834 (180 156–218 511) | 400 516 (318 280–524 322) |
| Panel characteristics and patient volume | ||||
| Panel size, no. of patients, mean ± SD | 295.9 (212.0) | 527.3 (351.0) | 760.1 (226.3) | 1257.8 (674.3) |
| Percentage of claims from panel,† mean ± SD | 47.1 (24.8) | 38.0 (22.4) | 72.0 (19.8) | 69.1 (21.5) |
| Average patient volume,‡ mean ± SD | 16.7 (7.9) | 26.8 (14.7) | 17.8 (3.9) | 29.3 (11.4) |
| Practice location by zone,§ no. (%) | ||||
| Zone 1 | 56 (6.0) | 11 (4.6) | 13 (5.2) | 158 (8.3) |
| Zone 2 | 408 (43.8) | 87 (36.4) | 105 (41.8) | 680 (35.8) |
| Zone 3 | 83 (8.9) | 23 (9.6) | 14 (5.6) | 256 (13.5) |
| Zone 4 | 278 (29.9) | 87 (36.4) | 104 (41.4) | 623 (32.8) |
| Zone 5 | 67 (7.2) | 31 (13.0) | 14 (5.6) | 176 (9.3) |
| Unknown zone | 39 (4.2) | 0 (0) | 1 (0.4) | 7 (0.4) |
| Practice location by urban–rural continuum,§ no. (%) | ||||
| Urban | 72 (7.7) | 29 (12.1) | 19 (7.6) | 223 (11.7) |
| Metro | 572 (61.4) | 132 (55.2) | 163 (64.9) | 964 (50.7) |
| Moderate metro influence | 72 (7.7) | 27 (11.3) | 39 (15.5) | 262 (13.8) |
| Moderate urban influence | 4 (0.4) | 2 (0.8) | 3 (1.2) | 21 (1.1) |
| Rural | 126 (13.5) | 39 (16.3) | 16 (6.4) | 301 (15.8) |
| Rural centre area | 30 (3.2) | 6 (2.5) | 6 (2.4) | 85 (4.5) |
| Rural remote | 16 (1.7) | 4 (1.7) | 4 (1.6) | 37 (1.9) |
| Unknown | 39 (4.2) | 0 (0) | 1 (0.4) | 7 (0.4) |
Note: FTAGREE = physicians who were classified as working full-time by both methods, FTSPTI = physicians who were classified as working full-time by the service day activities method and part-time by the income percentiles method, IQR = interquartile range, PTAGREE = physicians who were classified as working part-time by both methods, PTSFTI = physicians who were classified as working part-time by the service day activities method and full-time by the income percentiles method, SD = standard deviation.
↵* Agreement between the service day activities method and the income percentiles method.
↵† Proportion of claims for the patients in a primary care physician’s panel that are attributed to that physician.
↵‡ Average number of patients seen per day.
↵§ Geographic zones and population density ranges along the urban–rural continuum defined by Alberta Health Services.23,24