The interaction between patient shortage and patients waiting time

Tor Iversen and Hilde Lurås
Additional contact information
Hilde Lurås: Institute of Health Management and Health Economics, Postal: P.O. Box 1089 Blindern, NO-0317 Oslo, Norway

No 1999:2, HERO Online Working Paper Series from University of Oslo, Health Economics Research Programme

Abstract: We study the interaction between patient shortage and patients' waiting time to get an appointment. From a theoretical model we predict that physicians experiencing a shortage of patients offer their patients a shorter waiting time than their unconstrained colleagues. This happens because a shorter waiting time is expected to lower the threshold for seeking care, and hence, to increase the number of patient-initiated contacts. But it also happens because a shorter waiting time can be a mean to attract new patients. The hypotheses are supported by some preliminary results from a sample of Norwegian general practitioners participating in a capitation trial.

Keywords: General practitioner; patient shortage; waiting time (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I11 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2009-07-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.hero.uio.no/publicat/1999/HERO1999_2.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:oslohe:1999_002

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in HERO Online Working Paper Series from University of Oslo, Health Economics Research Programme HERO / Department of Health Management and Health Economics P.O. Box 1089 Blindern, N-0317 Oslo, Norway. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Kristi Brinkmann Lenander ().