Authors: Elizabeth Y. Lee, Jason Noble, Nirojini Sivachandran
Author Disclosure Block: E.Y. Lee: None. J. Noble: None. N. Sivachandran: None.

Abstract Body:

Purpose: To compare the practice patterns and working conditions of ophthalmologists to other surgical specialists in Canada.
Study Design: Cross-sectional survey study.
Methods: Data regarding specialty surgeons’ working conditions were extracted from the 2017 CMA Work Force Survey, a national survey of practicing physicians in Canada. Basic statistical analyses including chi-square analyses and t-tests, were used to compare the responses of ophthalmologists to other surgical disciplines using MedCalc® (Ostend, Belgium: MedCalc Software).
Results: Compared to other surgeons, ophthalmologists saw significantly more patients weekly excluding call (144 vs 70 patients, p<0.01, t-test). Ophthalmologists were more likely to provide same day urgent care services (77.0% vs. 30.8%, p<0.01, Chi-squared), despite a lower overall percentage reporting the provision of formal on-call duties (73.6% vs 85.4%, p<0.01 Chi-squared) and less formal on-call hours per week (110 vs 142 hours, p=0.02, t-test). There were no differences in the self-reported satisfaction in access to OR, procedural rooms, elective procedures and diagnostic tests between ophthalmology and other surgical specialties. Ophthalmologists tended to report feelings of being overworked more often than other surgeons (44.7% vs. 31.4%, p=0.01, Chi-squared). There was no statistical difference in professional life and work-life balance satisfaction between respondents in ophthalmology and other surgical specialties. Most ophthalmologists (92.5%) worked in a fee-for-service (FFS) model, whereas other surgeons had a mixture of FFS (67.9%) and blended (22.8%) models (p<0.01, t-test). Ophthalmologists reported a higher proportion of their income used for overhead compared to other surgeons (39.6% vs. 25.9%, p<0.01, Chi-squared).
Conclusions: The practice profiles and work patterns of ophthalmologists differ from those of other surgeons in Canada. Some of the differences in provision of on-call series may be due to the fact that ophthalmologists often see emergency cases in their private offices as opposed to an in-hospital setting. Although majority of ophthalmologists reported satisfaction with their professional life and work-life balance, the high percentage of respondents feeling overworked may contribute to physician burnout over the long-term.