Work

The Distribution of Doctor Quality: Evidence from Cardiologists in England

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: I provide new evidence on the role doctors play in determining patient outcomes.I exploit within-hospital quasi-random assignment of heart attack patients to doctors to estimate the effectiveness of individual doctors.I estimate a standard deviation increase in doctor quality reduces one-year mortality by 1.0 percentage points (7% of mean mortality).I show mortality could be reduced by 4% by reassigning doctors within hospitals to patients on the basis of their comparative advantage in treating specific patient types.This suggests reallocating existing staff could substantially improve patient outcomes.

Source: Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics

DOI: 10.1086/737239

Author: George Stoye

Language: English

Topic: Healthcare Quality and Management

Subfield: Health Information Management

Field: Health Professions

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: Department of Health and Social Care, Economic and Social Research Council

Awards: The impact of medical labour on variation in patient outcomes: evidence from English public hospitals, ESRC Institute for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy