The
Massachusetts Medical Society Physician Practice Environment Index, a
statistical indicator of the factors that affect the delivery of patient care
from physician practices, increased 0.6 percent in Massachusetts and 0.5 percent
in the United States in 2012.
Both
the Massachusetts Index and the United States Index measure nine factors that
impact the delivery of patient care in Massachusetts and in the United States. The indicators are:
- Applications to
medical schools
- Percent of physicians 55 years of age and over
- Median
physician income levels
- Ratio of median housing prices to median physician
income
- Cost of maintaining a physician’s practice
- Mean number of hours
spent on patient care activities
- Number of visits per emergency department
- Change in average professional liability (“malpractice”) insurance premium
rates
- Annual number of advertisements for physician vacancies in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Continued
positive growth in both Indices is suggestive of a subtly improving physician
practice environment overall. In each of the past six years, the United States
Index has increased, a trend that reflects a stronger practice environment.
While this conclusion is best supported nationally, the Massachusetts Index has also shown modest
improvement over the past two years.
Download the full report. (.pdf, 9 pages, 160 kb)
