The providers of health services in Lebanon: a survey of physicians
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BioMed Central
Open Access
Research
The providers of health services in Lebanon: a survey of physicians Kassem M Kassak*1, Hassan MK Ghomrawi2, Arabia Mohamad Ali Osseiran1 and Hanaa Kobeissi1 Address: 1Department of Health Management and Policy, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon and 2Division of Health Services Research & Policy, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA Email: Kassem M Kassak* - [email protected]; Hassan MK Ghomrawi - [email protected]; Arabia Mohamad Ali Osseiran - [email protected]; Hanaa Kobeissi - [email protected] * Corresponding author
Published: 17 February 2006 Human Resources for Health2006, 4:4
doi:10.1186/1478-4491-4-4
Received: 07 June 2005 Accepted: 17 February 2006
This article is available from: http://www.human-resources-health.com/content/4/1/4 © 2006Kassak et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract Background: Emerging from civil distress carries with it major challenges to reforming a health system. One such challenge is to ensure an adequate supply of competent human resources. The objective of this study was to assess the supply of physicians in Lebanon in 1998, with an assessment of their practice patterns and capacity building. Methods: Lists of members of physician's associations were examined to determine the number of physicians in Lebanon and their geographical distribution. A self-administered survey targeted 388 physicians (5%) randomly stratified by the five regions of Lebanon. Some 377 providers reported information on their demographic profile, practice patterns and development. Further, information on continuing education activities was acquired. Results: In Lebanon, the overall physician-to-population ratio was 248 per 100, 000, characterized by an evident maldistribution at the intracountry regional level. Physicians worked 38 hours per week examining on average 21 patients per day, with an average time of 30 minutes spent per visit. They also reported spending 11% of their time waiting for patients. Respondents reported a very wide range of income, with 90% earning less than USD 2,000 per month. Moreover, the continuing education profile revealed a total of 43.7 hours per year, similar to that required for board certification in many developed countries. Conference attendance was the dominant continuing education activity (95% of respondents) and consumed most of the time allotted for continuing education, reported at 32 hours per year. Discussion and conclusion: Various economic indicators point to an oversupply of physicians in Lebanon and a poor allocation of their time for capacity building. Therefore, it is crucial for decision-makers to closely monitor the increasing supply of providers and institute app
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