Simon School Professors Investigate Labor Practices in the Health Care Industry

Prof. Greg Dobson (pictured, at left) and Prof. Edieal Pinker (at right) are leading a research study that investigates current staffing procedures, division of labor, and the resulting profitability of primary care physician practices. Their paper on this topic, coauthored by R. Lawrence Van Horn (Owen School of Management), has been accepted by the Manufacturing & Service Operations Management (M&SOM)--a premier journal in the Operations Management (OM) research community. M&SOM presents groundbreaking research of interest to both academic and industry researchers and practitioners.

The basic idea behind the research paper is that almost all physicians hire support staff (secretaries, nurses, practice managers) to whom they delegate much of the work in the practice. Initially, the trade-off appears clear. Support staff wages are low compared with what the physician expects to earn, so it would seem that allocating as many “non-physician” components to the staff frees the time of the physician to do more “physician” work, which is, seeing more patients and producing more revenue.