Patient mobility for elective surgical interventions.

In this study, we address the question of patient mobility by defining three types of mobility and testing them with a Probit model. First, we have forced mobility (shortage of resources), second, physician-induced mobility (hospital affiliations) and finally, the mobility chosen by patients. We isolate explanatory variables for observed patient mobility for the year 1977-1978 in Quebec, Canada, and present the results for two specific surgical interventions. We found that forced and induced mobility are statistically significant in explaining the movements of patients in search of specific medical services. However, the mobility chosen by patients requires further investigation.