Comparison of admission rates among patients treated by male and female emergency physicians: a multicenter study

BACKGROUND: No study to date has looked at the gender of emergency medicine (EM) physicians in the United States in relation to admission rates. This study seeks to investigate admission rates of adult patients treated by female vs male EM physicians, to identify whether a practice pattern bias exists. METHODS: This was a multicenter retrospective study of four community hospitals. Population: All patient encounters between July 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017. Outcome: We compared multiple benchmarks, including admission rates, patient acuity, length of stay, return visits, patient age, and years of practice using descriptive statistics and Pearson Correlation Coefficients. RESULTS: 171,762 encounters by 71 EM physicians; 29 females, 42 males. Average admission rates: female 30.1%, male 28.0%, p = .188. Average encounters: female 2456, male 2394, p = 0.77. Acuity: female 149.3, male 146.9, p = .227. Average length of stay (minutes): female 294.4, male 277.4, p = .137. Average patient age: female 50.9, male 50.2, p = .457. Median time of encounter: female 12.8, male 12.7, p = .964. Years of practice: female 16.2, male 19.1, p = .274. Average return visits per one thousand: female 8.5, male 8.5, p = .864. Secondary analysis of Pearson Correlation Coefficient of Significance; admission rate and length of stay: female 0.53, p = .0026; male 0.76, p < .0001. Admission rate and acuity: female 0.56, p = .0012; male 0.76, p < .0001. Admission rate and patient age: female 0.54, p = 0.0018; male 0.50, p = 0.0003. CONCLUSION: No statistically significant difference exists between the admission rates of male and female emergency medicine physicians. The admission rate in both groups had the highest correlation with patients’ age, acuity, and length of stay.