In telepulmonology a general practitioner (GP) digitally consults a local pulmonologist. This study assessed the effect of telepulmonology on quality and efficiency of care. Efficiency of care was measured as the percentage of prevented physical referrals. Quality of care was measured using 5 indicators. Thirty-one percent of the TelePulmonology Consultations (TPCs) were sent to prevent a physi...

Drug prescribing and referrals to specialists' consultations, as the indicators of the quality of health care, were not so often monitored in Croatian family medicine. The aims of the study are to determine the trends of referrals from family doctors to specialists' consultations and the trends of specialists' consultations utilization. The study is based on routinely collected data from the Cr...

BACKGROUND Comparative performance information (CPI) about the quality of hospital care is information used to identify high-quality hospitals and providers. As the gatekeeper to secondary care, the general practitioner (GP) can use CPI to reflect on the pros and cons of the available options with the patient and choose a provider best fitted to the patient's needs. We investigated how GPs view...

BACKGROUND Considering the increasing use of alternative therapies for children, it is appropriate to determine the demographic profile of pediatric patients entering a chiropractic clinic. METHODS Collection of demographic data including age, gender, condition at presentation, previous clinicians consulted and medical referral rates of pediatric patients presenting to a chiropractic teaching...

BACKGROUND Avoiding major (above-ankle) amputation in patients with diabetic foot ulcers is best accomplished by multidisciplinary care teams with access to infectious disease specialists. However, access to infectious disease physicians is partially influenced by geography. We assessed the effect of living in a hospital referral region with a high geographic density of infectious disease physi...

BACKGROUND Attention to patients with acute minor-illnesses requesting same-day consultation represents a major burden in primary care. The workload is assumed by general practitioners in many countries. A number of reports suggest that care to these patients may be provided, at in least in part, by nurses. However, there is scarce information with respect to the applicability of a program of n...

BACKGROUND Though motivational interviewing (MI) has demonstrated efficacy in a range of behaviour change settings, effectiveness will require successful integration into everyday practice. This study examines implementers' views on delivering MI within an exercise referral scheme and consistency of consultations with MI before and after a 2-day workshop. METHOD Semi-structured interviews wer...

BACKGROUND The growing complexity of care with more professionals involved is a threat to the delivery of coherent and consistent care. Excellent exchange of information between professionals may be a way to maintain continuity of care. Relevant information to be passed over includes thoughts about future management for individual patients. AIM To explore the nature of GPs' thoughts about fut...

Eleven general practitioners examined the medical records of all women on their lists born in 1950 (617 patients) and 1935 (533 patients) to determine the prevalence of childlessness and specialist consultations about infertility. Eighty eight (14.3%) of the women born in 1950 and 41 (7.7%) of those born in 1935 were childless. Sixty eight women born in 1950 (11.0%) and 17 born in 1935 (3.2%) w...

OBJECTIVE AND METHODS A retrospective analysis was performed using the medical records in a referral center in Mexico over a period of 5 years, in order to determine the frequency of acute follicular conjunctivitis. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS A total of 859,986 ophthalmology consultations were given, from which 8,930 were diagnosed with acute follicular conjunctivitis (1.03% of the total). The n...