Journal of primary care & community health
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J Prim Care Community Health · Jan 2015
Randomized Controlled TrialEvaluation of the effect of decision support on the efficiency of primary care providers in the outpatient practice.
Clinical decision support (CDS) for primary care has been shown to improve delivery of preventive services. However, there is little evidence for efficiency of physicians due to CDS assistance. In this article, we report a pilot study for measuring the impact of CDS on the time spent by physicians for deciding on preventive services and chronic disease management. ⋯ Our findings suggest that CDS assistance significantly reduced the time spent by physicians for deciding on preventive services and chronic disease management. The result needs to be confirmed by performing similar studies at other institutions.
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J Prim Care Community Health · Jan 2015
Cultural competence and perceptions of community health workers' effectiveness for reducing health care disparities.
Community health worker (CHW) interventions improve health outcomes of patients from underserved communities, but health professionals' perceptions of their effectiveness may impede integration of CHWs into health care delivery systems. Whether health professionals' attitudes and skills, such as those related to cultural competence, influence perceptions of CHWs, is unknown. ⋯ Providers and staff with greater cultural competence and preparedness have more positive expectations of CHW interventions to reduce healthcare disparities. Cultural competency training may complement the use of CHWs and support their effective integration into primary care clinics that are seeking to reduce disparities.
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J Prim Care Community Health · Jan 2015
Comparative StudyGeneral practitioners using complementary and alternative medicine differ from general practitioners using conventional medicine in their view of the risks of electromagnetic fields: a postal survey from Germany.
General practitioners (GPs) play a key role in consulting patients worried about health effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF). We compared GPs using conventional medicine (COM) with GPs using complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) concerning their perception of EMF risks. Moreover, we assessed whether the kind of alternative medicine has an influence on the results. ⋯ Concern about common EMF sources is highly prevalent among German GPs. CAM-GPs perceive stronger associations between EMF and health problems than COM-GPs. There is a need for evidence-based information about EMF risks for GPs and particularly for CAM-GPs. This is the precondition that GPs can inform patients about EMF and health in line with current scientific knowledge.
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J Prim Care Community Health · Apr 2014
Implementation of quality improvement skills by primary care teams: case study of a large academic practice.
Continuous quality improvement (QI) is important to primary care in general, and is emphasized as a key tenet of the primary care patient-centered medical home (PCMH) model. While team-based QI activities within the PCMH model are expected, concerns exist as to how successful efforts have been at implementing team-driven QI projects. ⋯ In this large academic primary care clinic setting, interdisciplinary team training in QI, support for data collection, and dedicated coaching resources produced few sustainable continuous QI initiatives. Several potentially modifiable barriers to initiation, completion, and sustainability of QI initiatives by primary care teams were identified.
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J Prim Care Community Health · Jan 2014
Randomized Controlled TrialImpact of an outpatient pharmacist intervention on medication discrepancies and health care resource utilization in posthospitalization care transitions.
Medication errors related to hospital discharge result in rehospitalization and emergency department (ED) visits, yet no systematic approach has been implemented nationally to decrease these medication errors. Pharmacist involvement during postdischarge transitions of care may be an important strategy to prevent and correct medication discrepancies and reduce costly rehospitalization and ED visits. ⋯ A pharmacist-driven intervention focused on patient education and medication reconciliation after discharge improved medication use and reduced health care resource utilization in this pilot study.