Croatian medical journal, Vol. 60 No. 4, 2019.

Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.3325/cmj.2019.60.316

The influence of general practitioners on access points to health care in a system without gatekeeping: a crosssectional study in the context of the QUALICOPC project in Austria

Kathryn Hoffmann ; Department of General Practice and Family Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Aaron George ; Department of Community and Family Medicine, Duke Medical Center, Durham, NC, United States
Tessa Van Loenen ; Department of Primary and Community Medicine, IMPULS– Netherlands Center for SocialCare Research, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
Jan De Maeseneer ; Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care, Ghent University Ghent, Belgium
Manfred Maier ; Department of General Practice and Family Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Sažetak
Aim To assess the rates of specialist visits and visits to hospital
emergency departments (ED) among patients in Austria
with and without concurrent general practitioner (GP)
consultation and among patients with and without chronic
disease.
Methods The cross-sectional questionnaire study was conducted
in the context of the QUALICOPC project in 2012.
Fieldworkers recruited 1596 consecutive patients in 184 GP
offices across Austria. The 41-question survey addressed
patients’ experiences with regard to access to, coordination,
and continuity of primary care, as well demographics
and health status. Descriptive statistics as well as univariate
and multivariate regression models were applied. Results More than 90% of patients identified a GP as a primary
source of care. Among all patients, 85.5% reported
having visited a specialist and 26.4% the ED at least once
in the previous year. Having a usual GP did not change the
rate of specialist visits. Additionally, patients with chronic
disease had a higher likelihood of presenting to the ED despite
having a GP as a usual source of care.
Conclusion Visiting specialists in Austria is quite common,
and the simple presence of a GP as a usual source of care
is insufficient to regulate pathways within the health care
system. This can be particularly difficult for chronic care patients
who often require care at different levels of the system
and show higher frequency of ED presentations.

Hrčak ID: 240097

URI
https://hrcak.srce.hr/240097

  

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