Gender, racial and ethnic background considerations in physician selection
Faculty members Dr. Rajiv Sharma and Dr. Sarah Tinkler published a paper in the August 2024 issue of The Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization which is a top field journal in economics. The article is titled "Identity and access: Gender-based preferences and physician availability in primary care." In collaboration with colleagues Brigham Walker, Janna Wisniewski and Jillian Torres from Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA, they investigated whether the gender, racial and ethnic backgrounds of physicians mattered to patients seeking primary care appointments. Experimental data from a survey of US respondents showed that female patients of all races significantly prefer female over male doctors by a very large margin, while male patients showed no such preferences based on gender. A separate field experiment (“secret shopper” study) which used gender, racially and ethnically distinctive names found that female physicians tend to have busier schedules and patients must wait longer to see them than their male counterparts. Additionally, female doctors' offices prioritize some female patients over male patients by offering earlier appointments, but this favoritism doesn't apply evenly across racial groups. Hispanic female patients were offered fewer appointments than Hispanic males, and Black female patients were more likely to be told that the doctor wasn't accepting new patients.
The study concluded that female doctors are highly sought after by women, but that access to female physicians is shaped by both race and gender. This research helps to inform the discussion on ensuring that the physician labor supply is able to meet the demands of a diverse patient population.