The Service Patterns of a Racially, Ethnically, and Linguistically Diverse Housestaff
- 1 December 2001
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) in Academic Medicine
- Vol. 76 (12), 1232-1240
- https://doi.org/10.1097/00001888-200112000-00018
Abstract
To explore whether racial and ethnic concordance in the service patterns of residents is as disproportionate as it is among practicing physicians, and to examine the effect of residents' second-language proficiencies on these patterns. The authors conducted a cross-sectional study of billing data from 13,681 patient visits to resident continuity clinics at a Northern California pediatric medical center between May 1998 and October 1999. For each racial or ethnic group of patients, the proportion of patient visits to race-concordant residents was compared with the proportion of visits to all residents of other races or ethnicities. Multivariate logistic regression analyses (adjusted for confounders and residents' second-language proficiency) were used to measure the concordance of race or ethnicity in patient—resident pairs. For all visits made to African-American, Asian, and Latino residents, the percentage of race-concordant visits exceeded the percentage of race-discordant visits for each patient group. In adjusted regression models, African-American, Asian, and Latino patients were more likely to visit residents of the same race or ethnicity. White patients were not more or less likely to visit white residents. When adjusted for residents' second-language proficiencies, Latino patients remained more likely to visit Latino residents and Asian patients remained more likely to see Asian residents. In analyses restricted to residents reporting fluency in Spanish, Latino patients were more likely to visit Latino residents. African-American, Asian, and Latino pediatric residents disproportionately served more patients from their own racial or ethnic backgrounds. This service pattern was not completely explained by physicians' second-language proficiencies. A resident's race or ethnicity may reflect a unique set of skills that is highly valued by patients or health care systems.This publication has 20 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Effects of Ethnicity and Language on Medical Outcomes of Patients with Hypertension or DiabetesMedical Care, 1997
- Will Minority Physician Supply Meet U.S. Needs?Health Affairs, 1997
- The relationship between the race/ethnicity of generalist physicians and their care for underserved populations.American Journal of Public Health, 1997
- Finishing the bridge to diversityAcademic Medicine, 1997
- Patient-Physician Pairing: Does Racial and Ethnic Congruity Influence Selection of a Regular Physician?Journal of Community Health, 1997
- The Role of Black and Hispanic Physicians in Providing Health Care for Underserved PopulationsThe New England Journal of Medicine, 1996
- US National Health Data on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders: a research agenda for the 1990s.American Journal of Public Health, 1992
- Language as a Communication Barrier in Medical Care for Hispanic PatientsHispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 1991
- Language Concordance as a Determinant of Patient Compliance and Emergency Room Use in Patients with AsthmaMedical Care, 1988
- A comparison of medical record with billing diagnostic information associated with ambulatory medical care.American Journal of Public Health, 1981