Version Date: Feb 14, 2024 View help for published
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Center for Studying Health System Change
Series:
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03820.v3
Version V3 (see more versions)
This study comprises the third round of the physician survey component of the Community Tracking Study (CTS). Sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the CTS is a large-scale investigation of changes in the health care system and their effects on people. Central to the design of the CTS is its community focus. Sixty sites (51 metropolitan areas and 9 nonmetropolitan areas) were randomly selected to form the core of the CTS and to be representative of the nation as a whole. As in the first two rounds of the physician survey, COMMUNITY TRACKING STUDY PHYSICIAN SURVEY, 1996-1997: [UNITED STATES] (ICPSR 2597) and COMMUNITY TRACKING STUDY PHYSICIAN SURVEY, 1998-1999: [UNITED STATES] (ICPSR 3267), the third round was administered to physicians in the 60 CTS sites and to a supplemental national sample of physicians. The survey instrument collected information on physician supply and specialty distribution, practice arrangements and physician ownership of practices, physician time allocation, sources of practice revenue, level and determinants of physician compensation, provision of charity care, career satisfaction, physicians' perceptions of their ability to deliver care, effects of care management strategies, and various other aspects of physicians' practice of medicine. Part 3, the Site and County Crosswalk Data File, identifies the counties that constitute each CTS site. Part 4, Physician Survey Summary File, contains site-level estimates and standard errors for selected physician characteristics, e.g., the average age of physicians, the percentage of physicians who were either very or somewhat dissatisfied with their overall career in medicine, and the average percentage of patients with prescription coverage that included the use of a formulary.
Export Citation:
As explained in the technical documentation, some variables are restricted from general dissemination for reasons of confidentiality. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete an Agreement for the Use of Confidential Data, specify the reasons for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research. Apply for access to these data through the ICPSR restricted data contract portal, which can be accessed via the study home page.
The data maps are provided as ASCII text files and the codebooks and user guides are provided as Portable Document Format (PDF) files.
The CTS sites were selected using stratified sampling with probability proportional to population size. Within each site, physicians were randomly selected from sampling frames stratified by primary care physician status (PCP and non PCP) and disposition for the 1998-1999 physician survey. The supplemental sample, selected with stratified probability sampling, was included in the survey to increase the precision of national estimates. Primary care physicians were oversampled in the site sample. The sample frames were developed by combining lists of physicians from the American Medical Association and the American Osteopathic Association. All of the respondents to the 1998-1999 survey were selected for the 2000-2001 survey, and most of them agreed to participate. There were 8,527 physicians who participated in both the 1998-1999 and 2000-2001 surveys.
Physicians practicing in the contiguous United States who provided direct patient care for at least 20 hours per week. The survey excluded federal employees, specialists in fields in which the primary focus was not direct patient care, graduates of foreign medical schools who were only temporarily licensed to practice in the United States, physicians who had not completed their medical training (residents, interns, and fellows), and physicians who requested of the American Medical Association that their names not be released to outsiders.
telephone interview
2003-11-10
2024-02-14 Online variable search capabilities have been added for this study.
2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:2008-06-18 Stata setups were added to the collection. In addition, a missing value label for variable WTPAN2 was added to the SPSS setup for the Restricted-Use Version of the Main Data File.
The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.
One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.
This study is maintained and distributed by the Health and Medical Care Archive (HMCA). HMCA is the official data archive of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
