Nearly half of medical school students nationwide are now female, and as they enter the profession, they are making patient care friendlier and therefore may be less likely to get sued than male physicians.
Possibly exacerbating the physician shortage:
For the typical patient, having a woman physician means longer office visits. They typically spend more time talking with and counseling patients, according to a 2002 analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
That extra time may also mean a longer wait to see a doctor. A full-time male doctor typically sees 102 patients per week; a full-time female doctor, 87. The discrepancy is aggravated by the fact that women tend to draw more patients into a practice at the same time that they are more apt to work part-time.
