• David T Liss, Andrew J Cooper, Manisha Cherupally, Tiffany Brown, and Marilyn G Pearson.
• Division of General Internal Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, United States.
• Fam Pract. 2024 Dec 2; 41 (6): 100210091002-1009.

BackgroundLittle is known about how variation in the scheduled length of primary care visits can impact patients' patterns of health care utilization.ObjectiveTo evaluate how the scheduled length of in-person visits with primary care physicians (PCPs) was associated with PCP and patient characteristics, outpatient utilization, and preventive care receipt.MethodsThis retrospective cohort study examined data from a large American academic health system. PCP visit length template was defined as either 15- and 30-min scheduled appointments (i.e. 15/30), or 20- and 40-min scheduled appointments (i.e. 20/40).ResultsOf 222 included PCPs, 85 (38.3%) used the 15/30 template and 137 (61.7%) used the 20/40 template. The 15/30 group had higher proportions of male (49.4%, vs. 35.8% in the 20/40 group) and family medicine (37.6% vs. 21.2%) physicians. In adjusted patient-level analysis (N = 238,806), having a 15/30 PCP was associated with 9% more primary care visits (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 1.09; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03-1.14), and 8% fewer specialty care visits (IRR, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.86-0.98). PCP visit length template was not associated with significant differences in obstetrics/gynaecology visits, continuity of care, or preventive care receipt. In interaction analyses, having a 15/30 PCP was associated with additional primary care visits among non-Hispanic White patients (IRR, 1.10; 95% CI, 1.04-1.16) but not among non-Hispanic Black patients.ConclusionPCPs' choices about the scheduled length of in-person visits may impact their patients' specialty care use, and have varying impacts across different racial/ethnic groups.© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.

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