Are Hospital Mortality and Readmission Affected by the Sex of the Physician or Patient?

In a 2017 retrospective study, investigators found that in-hospital mortality and readmission rates were lower (adjusted difference, ≈0.5%) among patients cared for by female physicians compared with male physicians (NEJM JW Gen Med Mar 15 2017 and JAMA Intern Med 2017; 177:206). Now, the same investigators constructed a new retrospective cohort of 750,000 Medicare patients to assess whether effects of physician sex on hospital outcomes are associated patient sex.

Approximately 30% of patients were cared for by female physicians. Female patients had significantly lower adjusted 30-day mortality (−0.24%) and lower adjusted 30-day readmission rates (−0.48%) when they were cared for by female physicians than by male physicians. In contrast, for…