TY  - JOUR
AU  - Doyle,Joseph J., Jr.
AU  - Ewer,Steven M.
AU  - Wagner,Todd H.
TI  - Returns to Physician Human Capital:  Analyzing Patients Randomized to Physician Teams
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 14174
PY  - 2008
Y2  - July 2008
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14174
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14174.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Joseph J. Doyle, Jr.
MIT Sloan School of Management
50 Memorial Drive
E52-447
Cambridge, MA 02142
Tel: 617/452-3761
Fax: 617/258-6855
E-Mail: jjdoyle@mit.edu

Steven M. Ewer
Meriter Hospital
202 South Park Street
Madison, WI 53715
E-Mail: ewersteven@mac.com

Todd Wagner
VA Palo Alto and Stanford University
Health Economics Resource Center (HERC)
795 Willow Road (152 MPD)
Menlo Park, CA 94025
E-Mail: twagner@stanford.edu
AB  - Patient sorting can confound estimates of the returns to physician human capital.  This paper compares nearly 30,000 patients who were randomly assigned to clinical teams from one of two academic institutions.  One institution is among the top medical schools in the country, while the other institution is ranked lower in the quality distribution.  Patients treated by the two teams have identical observable characteristics and have access to a single set of facilities and ancillary staff.  Those treated by physicians from the higher-ranked institution have 10-25% shorter and less expensive stays than patients assigned to the lower-ranked institution.  Health outcomes are not related to the physician team assignment, and the estimates are precise.  Procedure differences across the teams are consistent with the ability of physicians in the lower-ranked institution to substitute time and diagnostic tests for the faster judgments of physicians from the top-ranked institution.
ER  -