This study examines the influence of patients' immigration background and residence permit status on physicians' willingness to treat patients in due time. A factorial survey was conducted among 352 general practitioners with a background in internal medicine in a German-speaking region in Switzerland. Participants expressed their self-rating (SR) as well as the expected colleague-rating (CR) to provide immediate treatment to 12 fictive vignette patients. The effects of the vignette variables were analysed using random-effects models. The results show that SR as well as CR was not only influenced by the medical condition or the physicians' time pressure, but also by social factors such as the ethnicity and migration history, the residence permit status, and the economic condition of the patients. Our findings can be useful for the development of adequate, practically relevant teaching and training materials with the ultimate aim to reduce unjustified discrimination or social rationing in health care. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd.

Health care disparities Migration Physicians' attitudes Switzerland Ethnicity Residence permit status Factorial survey Social rationing Immigration

doctor patient relation communication barrier Communication Barriers binomial distribution disease treatment human immigration middle aged social aspect time factor Aged General Practitioners Time Factors Logistic Models general practitioner human versus animal comparison teaching ethnology procedures speech health personnel attitude Attitude of Health Personnel Surveys and Questionnaires racial disparity migrant psychology Humans male Emigrants and Immigrants female Socioeconomic Factors Multivariate Analysis socioeconomics questionnaire clinical article health services health care Internal Medicine adult emergency health service health worker Choice Behavior ethnicity vignette Triage statistical model decision making Healthcare Disparities health care disparity Switzerland immigrant population