Assistant Professor of Health Services

UCLA School of Public Health
Box 951772
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772
(310) 825-2926
Fax: (310) 206-4722
E-mail: parkert@ucla.edu

Dr. Parkerton focuses on medical care system processes and how to improve organizational structure and primary care practice. She teaches managed care, quality improvement, management, and ethics.

Her University of Michigan graduate studies resulted in a Ph.D. in Health Services Organization and Policy (sociology and organizational studies) as well as an M.P.H. in Medical Care Organization. An intervening twenty-year career as a medical administrator included management of: the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Connecticut, IPA and staff model Health Maintenance Organizations, a community hospital, and an academic medical center.

Dr. Parkerton’s research interests focus on the mechanisms to deliver medical care and methods to improve quality within physician offices, academic health centers, and managed care plans. Recent research has included: physician performance measurement, the effects of clinical time and continuity on primary care physician performance, the influence of quality improvement strategies and physician organization on the adoption of innovation, organizational variation in colorectal cancer screening, research designs for translation research, and practice improvement implementation strategies. She is currently conducting research assessing change implementation nationally: across the Veterans Health Administration quality enhancement efforts, and among lead hospital medical-surgical units participating in the Robert Wood Johnson funded, Transforming Care at the Bedside.

Selected Publications

Yano, E.M., Soban, L.M., Parkerton, P.H., Etzioni, D.A. “Primary Care Practice Organization Influences Colorectal Cancer Screening”, 2006, Health Services Research, in press.

Parkerton, P.H., Feldbau, G.A., Straley, H.L., “Systems Learning from Physician Performance Data”, 2004, The Permanente Journal, 8(2): 60-65.

Goldzweig, C.L., Parkerton, P.H., Washington, D.L., Lanto, A.B., Yano, E.M., “Primary Care Practice and Quality Orientation: Influence on Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening Rates”, 2004, The American Journal of Managed Care, 10(4): 259-65.

Parkerton, P.H., Smith D.G., Straley, H.L., “Primary Care Practice Coordination vs. Physician Continuity, 2004, Family Medicine, 36 (1):15-21.

Parkerton, P.H., Smith D.G., Belin T.A., Feldbau, G, “Physician Performance Assessment: Nonequivalence of Primary Care Measures”, 2003, Medical Care, 41(9):1034-47.

Parkerton, P.H., Wagner, E.H., Smith, D.G. Straley, H.L., “The Effect of Part-Time Practice on Primary-Care Patient Outcomes”, 2003, Journal of General Internal Medicine 18(9): 717-24.

Parkerton, P.H., “Motives for Health Plan-Academic Health Center Relationships: Journal Review of the First Quarter Century”, 1999, Medical Care Research and Review, 56 (Supp. 2): 111-138.

Parkerton, P.H., J.D. Geiger, S.S. Mick, and J.A. O'Neill, “The Market for Pediatric Surgeons: A Survey of Recent Graduates”, 1999, Journal of Pediatric Surgery, 34 (6): 931-9.