How many MDs take call? How are they paid?

Shelley Martin

The CMA's 2002 Physician Resource Questionnaire (PRQ) found that 74% of Canadian physicians take call or share call. Among those who take it, remaining within a specified area and carrying a phone or pager is the most common form of duty (94%), followed by scheduled on-site call (56%) and checking with an answering service or for voice-mail messages (25%). Just over half of physicians who take call (52%) do scheduled on-site duty in addition to being available by phone or pager. Overall, 58% of physicians who take call are involved in 2 or more types of call duty.

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Among physicians who take call, 52% do so on behalf of their own patients, 54% on behalf of a group of physicians and 76% on behalf of a facility or community. Less than half of those who take call (44%) are involved in a single type of call arrangement, while most (56%) engage in 2 or more arrangements.

Less than half of physicians who take call (45%) are paid for making themselves available in off hours. Rural doctors are much more likely to be paid than their urban colleagues (75% vs. 42%), and FPs are more likely to be paid (50%) than medical specialists (38%) and surgical specialists (44%).

As for payment methods, 46% of physicians who take call receive regular fee-for-service (FFS) payments, and another four percent are paid special FFS rates.

Nineteen percent of physicians who take call are paid by a combination of payment methods. — Shelley Martin, Senior Analyst, Research, Policy and Planning Directorate, CMA