Do resident and staff physicians differ in the types and costs of antihypertensive drugs they select?
OBJECTIVE: To compare the types and costs of drugs prescribed by resident and staff physicians treating patients with uncomplicated essential hypertension. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study, using a computer-based medical record database. SETTING: Primary care internal medicine clinic in a large teaching hospital. PATIENTS/PARTICIPANTS: Hypertensive patients seen by ten postgraduate year-1 (PGY-1) and PGY-2 primary care internal medicine residents and four staff physicians practicing in the same clinic. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The types and costs of antihypertensive drugs prescribed for the patients treated by resident and staff physicians were compared. A larger proportion of patients of resident physicians than of staff physicians were treated with calcium channel blockers [19(15%) vs. 40(4%), p less than 0.001]; residents prescribed thiazide diuretics less frequently and beta-blockers more frequently than did staff physicians, although these differences were not significant. The
