RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 A Primary Care Panel Size of 2500 Is neither Accurate nor Reasonable
JF The Journal of the American Board of Family
                Medicine
JO J Am Board Fam Med
FD American Board of Family Medicine
SP 496
OP 499
DO 10.3122/jabfm.2016.04.150317
VO 29
IS 4
A1 Melanie Raffoul
A1 Miranda Moore
A1 Doug Kamerow
A1 Andrew Bazemore
YR 2016
UL http://www.jabfm.org/content/29/4/496.abstract
AB Primary care panel sizes are an important component of primary care practices. Determining the appropriate panel size has implications for patient access, physician workload, and care comprehensiveness and will have an impact on quality of care. An often quoted standard panel size is 2500. However, this number seems to arise in the literature anecdotally, without a basis in research. Subsequently, multiple studies observed that a panel size of 2500 is not feasible because of time constraints and results in incomplete preventive care and health care screening services. In this article we review the origins of a panel size of 2500, review the subsequent work examining this number and effectively debunking it as a feasible panel size, and discuss the importance of primary care physicians setting an appropriate panel size.