Community and Regional Planning Program

 

First Advisor

Yunwoo Nam

Second Advisor

Gordon Sholz

Third Advisor

Rodrigo Cantereo

Date of this Version

Spring 4-2020

Citation

A Master Thesis

Comments

A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College of the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Master of Community and Regional Planning, Major: Community and Regional Planning, Under the Supervision of Professor Yunwoo Nam. Lincoln, Nebraska: April. 2020

Copyright 2020 Chanhyun Park

Abstract

Many articles point out that there is a disparity between rural and urban areas in healthcare service. The disparity is derived from the locational choices of physicians which are influenced by diverse factors such as backgrounds where they grew up or type of facility at which they worked. This study examines physician movements which vary depending on the types of physician and facility in Nebraska. The research dataset are annual practicing records of all primary care physicians and business information of the facilities in Nebraska from 1998 to 2019. The study result shows that there is little difference in physicians’ tenure and movements between rural and urban areas. On the other hand, physicians’ high school background and facility closure are the most influential factors to cause physicians’ movements in the state. The physicians who have out-of-state high school background and have not revealed the high school background show remarkably higher rate of leaving the state or stopping practicing than those of in-state high school backgrounds. The facility closure makes physicians move to other facilities, leave the state, or stop practicing. The factors affect the distribution and demand of physicians in Nebraska. As a result of the research, the study suggests a state level model which can explain the relation of physician type and facility type to physician movement in Nebraska.

Advisor: Yunwoo Nam

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