Date of Award
8-1980
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Dr. Frederick P. Gault
Second Advisor
Dr. Jack Michael
Third Advisor
Dr. J. M. Keenan
Access Setting
Masters Thesis-Open Access
Abstract
Completion of hospital medical records by physicians is a frequent problem to hospital administrations. A performance based lottery was used to evaluate its effectiveness in reducing the number of medical records which were unfinished and considered delinquent. Thirty-three male physicians were included in this study. Physicians earned or lost lottery chances in weekly drawings for a dinner at a restaurant or gift certificate to a local store. Results show an immediate increase in rate of record completion which declines over the course of the eight week experimental condition. Age of records were inversely correlated to the rate of completion. The procedure was initially successful although its effectiveness diminished. Several procedural drawbacks may have influenced behavior such as additional response effort to retrieve the prize and difficulty in recording dates by office staff. Other methods of controlling performance are discussed.
Recommended Citation
Beers, Richard William, "The Effects of a Lottery on Completion of Medical Records by Physicians" (1980). Masters Theses. 1855.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/1855