Scandinavian journal of primary health care
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Scand J Prim Health Care · Mar 2024
Importance of continuity of care from a patient perspective - a cross-sectional study in Swedish health care.
The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the patients' view on continuity of care (CoC), including preference for a certain general practitioner (GP) and importance and access to a regular general practitioner (RGP). ⋯ In conclusion, this study showed that the majority of patients value CoC in terms of importance of having an RGP. Older patients were more likely to have a preference for a certain GP. Two-third of the patients succeeded in seeing their RGP always or a lot of the time. The results in this study provide evidence that CoC is important for most patients, regardless of age and gender.Key pointsPrevious studies have showed that continuity of care (CoC) is important regarding mortality and morbidity. In primary care, there is a current debate regarding CoC, accessibility and the strive for CoC. This study showed that the majority of patients, regardless of age and gender, value CoC and consider it being important. However, there was a statistically significant difference regarding age, where patients above 65 years old thought it was more important to have a regular general practitioner and more often had a preference for a certain GP.
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Scand J Prim Health Care · Mar 2024
Suitability of issuing sickness certifications in remote consultations during the COVID-19 pandemic. A mixed method study of GPs' experiences.
To explore Norwegian GPs' experiences with and perceived suitability of issuing sickness certifications in remote consultations during the COVID-19 pandemic. ⋯ Our study shows that issuing sickness certifications in remote consultations were viewed to be suitable for COVID-19 related problems, for patients the GP has met before, for the follow-up of known medical problems, and the extension of sickness certifications. Not meeting the patient face-to-face may affect the GP-patient relationship as well as make the GPs' dual role more challenging.
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Scand J Prim Health Care · Mar 2024
Managing mental health in chronic care in general practice: a feasibility study of the Healthy Mind intervention.
Mental health issues are common among patients with chronic physical conditions. This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of the Healthy Mind intervention, a general practice-based programme that provides problem-solving therapy (PST) to patients with poor mental well-being and type 2 diabetes (T2D) and/or ischaemic heart disease (IHD). ⋯ The Healthy Mind intervention was found to be feasible, and the results support proceeding to a full-scale evaluation trial.
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Scand J Prim Health Care · Mar 2024
Observational StudyInsulin initiation in patients with type 2 diabetes is often delayed, but access to a diabetes nurse may help-insights from Norwegian general practice.
Objective: We opted to study how support staff operational capacity and diabetes competences may impact the timeliness of basal insulin-initiation in general practice patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Design/Setting/Outcomes: This was an observational and retrospective study on Norwegian primary care patients with T2D included from the ROSA4-dataset. Exposures were (1) support staff size, (2) staff size relative to number of GPs, (3) clinic access to a diabetes nurse and (4) share of staff with diabetes course (1 and 2 both relate to staff operational capacity, whereas 3 and 4 are both indicatory of staff diabetes competences). ⋯ Adjusted risk of 'timely basal insulin-initiation' was more than twofold higher if access to a diabetes nurse (OR = 2.40, [95%CI, 1.68, 3.43]), but related only vaguely to staff size (OR = 1.01, [95%CI, 1.00, 1.03]). No other staff factors related significantly to neither the primary nor the secondary outcome. Conclusion: In Norwegian general practice, insulin initiation in people with T2D may be affected by therapeutic inertia but access to a diabetes nurse may help facilitating more timely insulin start-up.