Study of workload of general medicine specialists working in the health insurance clinics.

This study was conducted at 4 of the H.I.O. polyclinics in Alex. with the objective of examining the change in visit rate per 1000 beneficiaries for general medicine specialty at H.I.O. clinics during a 4-year period (1985-1988) and to detect any trends that may have a bearing on the H.I.O. standards for supply of specialists. Data were collected from H.I.O. statistics department, H.I.O. regulations, and also through researcher's observation and specialists' interview. The collected data was used to describe the workload in terms of annual visit rate, actual number of working hours, the specialists' average production hours per day, the specialists' average idle time per day, the estimated number of required specialist working hours per day, and the specialists' recommended working hours per day. The results revealed a rising trend in the rate of use of general medicine specialist services and a definite shortage of supply of general medicine specialists was found in all clinics compared to H.I.O. standards. On the other hand, recommended supply based on specialist opinion was less than the H.I.O. standards but more than the current supply. Accordingly H.I.O. should re-estimate the specialist population standard and should seek the commitment of specialists to the revised standards.