Annals of family medicine
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Annals of family medicine · Mar 2008
What patients want from primary care consultations: a discrete choice experiment to identify patients' priorities.
The consultation is fundamental to the delivery of primary care, but different ways of organizing consultations may lead to different patient experiences in terms of access, continuity, technical quality of care, and communication. Patients' priorities for these different issues need to be understood, but the optimal methods for assessing priorities are unclear. This study used a discrete choice experiment to assess patients' priorities. ⋯ Although patient-centered care is important to patients, they may place higher priority on the technical quality of care and continuity of care. Discrete choice experiments may be a useful method for assessing patients' priorities in health care.
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Annals of family medicine · Mar 2008
Changing horses midstream: the promise and prudence of practice redesign.
An emerging vision for primary care calls for the adoption of information technology and a strong business model to save a dying health care system. The authors are participants in the National Demonstration Project (NDP), a study sponsored by leading organizations in family medicine and directed by a for-profit subsidiary of the American Academy of Family Physicians, TransforMED. ⋯ Our report is a personal reflection that looks beyond the question of whether busy practices and practitioners can change horses midstream. We ask, "Is this primary care, and is this what it needs?"
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A child's spontaneous desire to help her mother during an office visit prompts me to reflect upon the multidimensional nature of healing and how, as family physicians, we often encounter these unique moments in our day-to-day practice.