Association between family physician gender and patient service times

Abstract Objective To quantify differences between self-reported service times of male and female family physicians (FPs) in Ontario. Design Cross-sectional census survey of FPs in active practice and survey weights for nonresponse. Setting Ontario. Participants A total of 1055 FPs practising in Ontario who completed the survey. Main outcome measures Self-reported duration, in minutes, of the services Ontario FPs most commonly provide. Results For 19 of the 20 services examined, female FPs reported longer average service times than those of their male colleagues. Female-male differences ranging from 15% to 20% were statistically significant and clinically relevant. For the most frequently billed service, the intermediate assessment (bill code A007), female FPs spent an average of 3.9 minutes (22.3%) longer per service than male FPs (P