OBJECTIVES : To provide descriptive information on behavioral health (BH) productivity and billing practices within a pediatric primary care setting. METHODS : This retrospective investigation reviewed 30 months of electronic medical records and financial data. RESULTS : The percent of BH provider time spent in direct patient care (productivity) was 35.28% overall, with a slightly higher quarte...

UNLABELLED Patient evaluations are an important part of monitoring primary healthcare reforms, but there is little comparative information available to guide evaluators in the choice of instruments or to determine their relevance for Canada. OBJECTIVE To compare values and the psychometric performances of validated instruments thought to be most pertinent to the Canadian context for evaluatin...

Battle against COPD: time to reinforce the primary healthcare units of rural areas of India to combat lung diseases http://ow.ly/ZAwge.

In 2004, Canada's First Ministers committed to reforms that would shape the future of the Canadian healthcare landscape. These agreements included commitments to improved performance reporting within the primary healthcare system. The aim of this paper was to review the state of primary healthcare performance reporting after the public reporting mandate agreed to a decade ago in the Action Plan...

Surveys of patient satisfaction are widely used for identifying priorities and problems in healthcare reforms. The present study examined satisfaction and confidence of patients in public healthcare in Trinidad and Tobago. Data were gathered by interviewing a random sample (n = 280) of primary healthcare (PHC) patients. Level of patient satisfaction was high but not constant. Results of intervi...

Background Mental, neurological, and substance (MNS) use disorders are a leading cause of disability worldwide; specifically in Peru, MNS affect 1 in 5 persons. However, the great majority of people suffering from these disorders do not access care, thereby making necessary the improvement of existing conditions including a major rearranging of current health system structures beyond care deliv...

Federally qualified health centers and small primary care practices have many challenges in common: uninsured patients; growing numbers of chronically ill patients with complex needs; inadequate reimbursements by commercial health plans; and persistent staffing problems. Smaller primary care practices also face sizable barriers to participating in new delivery and payment models that are likely...

OBJECTIVE The objectives of this study are to evaluate the development and implementation of Medicare Locals as new primary care organisations and consider the implications of these findings for the wider challenge of strengthening primary healthcare in Australia and internationally. DESIGN National survey of Medicare Locals which involved the use of content analysis and a descriptive survey ...

PURPOSE The purpose of this descriptive study was to determine the level of autonomy of nurse practitioners (NPs) providing care to patients in a primary care setting. DATA SOURCES Data were collected from 48 primary care NPs (PCNPs) who attended a state clinical conference. The Dempster Practice Behavior Scale (DPBS) was used to measure the autonomy of the NPs. CONCLUSIONS The total mean s...

The ageing population and increasing prevalence of chronic illness have contributed to the need for significant primary care reform, including increased use of multidisciplinary care and task substitution. This cross-sectional study explores conditions under which older patients would accept having health professionals other than their general practitioner (GP) involved in their care for chroni...