Forgetting-by-not-doing : the case of surgeons and cesarean sections
Facchini, Gabriel (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Economia Aplicada)

Date:	2021
Abstract:	This paper provides new evidence on the link between patient outcome and physician experience. Using birth certificates data from a large hospital in Italy, I analyze whether cesarean section surgeons who have performed more procedures in the recent past observe an improvement in performance. By using data from the Italian health care system, where patients are not allowed to choose their physician, I lower concerns of potential reverse causality (selective referral). I find evidence indicating a strong learning-by-doing effect: for emergent cases, a one standard deviation increase in recent experience reduces the likelihood of neonatal intensive care unit admission by nearly 3. 2 percentage points (13. 8%) and of being born with a low Apgar Score by about 1. 9 percentage points (13. 2%), all else equal. This effect is not present for the case of elective C-sections.
Grants:	Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2017/SGR-1301 Agencia Estatal de Investigación PID2019-104619RB-C43
Note:	Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UAB
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Published in:	Health Economics, 2021 , ISSN 1099-1050

DOI: 10.1002/hec.4460

15 p, 647.9 KB

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