The Role of Gynecologists in Providing Primary Care to Elderly Women

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Original Research

The Role of Gynecologists in Providing Primary Care to Elderly Women

J Fam Pract. 2001 February;50(2):153-158

References

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Conclusions

In 1994, few OBGs were providing the level of care that ACOG designates as extended primary care and that the IOM considers primary care. Our study does not reflect the degree to which they might have been providing primary preventive care and does not examine OBGs’ abilities to provide care for nongynecologic problems. The extent to which these findings represent current practice is also unknown. Nonetheless, our findings provide a baseline for the type of care provided by OBGs and suggest that without changes in the scope of OBGs’ practice, legislation resulting in more elderly women using OBGs as their primary providers could result in greater fragmentation and costs for their overall medical care.

Alternatively, some OBGs could embrace the movement within their specialty to emphasize treating patients’ general medical problems. OBGs develop close relationships with patients during their reproductive years, and these patients may benefit from a continuing relationship with these physicians as they age. There have been recent changes in obstetrics-gynecology residency requirements, increasing the time spent training in general medicine to better prepare residents to provide nongynecologic care. Other specialties have developed training tracks to specifically prepare physicians to practice primary care. Perhaps this is the time for residency programs in obstetrics-gynecology to do the same for a subset of their residents specifically interested in providing primary care.

Acknowledgments

Our research was supported by grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Princeton, NJ, and the Office of Rural Health Policy and the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research of the US Public Health Service, Washington, DC. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the University of Washington, the Health Care Financing Administration, or the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The authors would like to acknowledge Peter Houck, MD, for his contributions to the manuscript and Durlin Hickok, MD, MPH, for reviewing the manuscript.