Variations in medical practice have been widely documented and are a linchpin in explanations of health disparities. Evidence shows that clinical decision making varies according to patient, provider and health system characteristics. However, less is known about the processes underlying these...

Objectives To (1) examine the influence of patient and provider attributes on physicians' diagnostic certainty and (2) assess the effect of diagnostic certainty on clinical therapeutic actions.Methods Factorial experiment of 128 generalist physicians using identical clinically authentic...

Primary health care is essential to population health and there is increasing need for it, especially with an aging population with multiple comorbidities. Primary health care in the U.S. is widely considered in an ever-deepening crisis. This paper presents a detailed case study of the recent...

In recent decades, an interdisciplinary quality assurance (QA) movement has emerged in health care studies, which has included increased attention to medical errors. Implicit in this QA effort is a conflict between (1) external agents encouraging the medical profession to adopt strategies for...

Results of a random survey of 2574 adults in East and West Germany in 1992 show virtually no differences in subjective health status for the populations of East versus West Germany and only slight differences for men versus women. A closer analysis via multiple regression indicates, however,...

Work-related stress among physicians has been an issue of growing concern in recent years. How and why this may vary between different health care systems remains poorly understood. Using an established theoretical model (effort-reward imbalance), this study analyses levels of work stress among...

This study investigates educational health inequalities in 22 European countries. Moreover, age and gender differences in the association between education and health are analysed. The study uses data from the European Social Survey 2003. Probability sampling from all private residents aged 15...

Objectives Since 2004 a large German health insurance company (Techniker Krankenkasse) has provided integrated inpatient health care (IHC) contracts to its members. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of this programme on patient satisfaction and health-related quality of life among...