Effect of a principal's gender on consultation patterns.

Abstract

This report describes a study of consultation patterns of male and female partners in a group practice. It was found that fulltime principals of both sexes had similar levels of workload; that patients chose to consult a doctor of the same sex not only for sex-specific disorders but also for conditions which were not sex-linked; that female partners were seeing a different age distribution of patient; and that doctor-initiated appointments varied not only between individual partners but were also related to both the sex of the doctor and the sex of the patient.