Hospital Outcomes Better When Patients Treated by Female Physicians

THURSDAY, Nov. 5, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Hospitalized patients cared for by female physicians are less likely to die or be readmitted than those treated by male physicians, according to a study published online Oct. 30 in JAMA Network Open.Angela Jerath, M.D., from the University of Toronto, and colleagues examined differences in care outcomes by physician sex among hospitalized medical patients admitted with seven common medical diagnoses. The analysis included 958,150 patients admitted between 2008 and 2022 (259,759 treated by female physicians and 698,391 by male physicians).The researchers found that when adjusting for patient-, physician-, and hospital-level factors, care by female physicians, compared with male physicians, was associated with lower 30-day mortality (12.3 versus 13.7 percent; adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.88; 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.85 to 0.91) and a trend toward lower hospital readmission (18.6 versus 18.9 percent; aOR, 0.98; 95 percent CI, 0.97 to 1.00). When defining physician sex by proportion of in-hospital days managed by a female physician (per 10 percent increment) rather than binary sex of the most responsible physician during hospital admission, greater exposure to care by a female physician was also associated with lower 30-day mortality (aOR, 0.93; 95 percent CI, 0.90 to 0.97) and readmission (aOR, 0.99; 95 percent CI, 0.98 to 0.99).“The goal is not to favor one group of physicians over another but to identify practices and behaviors that may help improve care across the health system,” Jerath said in a statement. “An important strength of this study is that, unlike surgical care, patients admitted to hospital for medical conditions are generally assigned physicians based on rotating schedules rather than patient or referring physician preferences, helping to minimize referral bias.”Abstract/Full Text.Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

Hospital Outcomes Better When Patients Treated by Female Physicians

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