Processes in the health sector include diagnostics, treatment, rehabilitation, prevention, education of patients, and all other interactions between qualified medical personnel patients. Interpersonal processes pertain to psychosocial aspect said activities variables that describe communication, continuity, patient awareness, degree involvement influence performance institutions primary care (P...

OBJECTIVE To assess utilization of ambulatory visits to primary care physicians (PCPs) and to specialists in 2 different managed care models: a closed panel gatekeeper health maintenance organization (HMO) and an open panel point-of-service HMO. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective study of patients enrolled in a single managed care organization with 2 distinct product lines: a gatekeeper HMO and a poi...

BACKGROUND Although numerous changes are apparent in the US health care system, little is known about how these changes have altered the work of primary care physicians. METHODS We analyzed a nationally representative sample of 136,233 adult office visits to general internists, general practitioners, and family physicians contained in the 1978 through 1981, 1985, and 1989 through 1994 Nationa...

Despite major obstacles, activities to control sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) were initiated in Haiti in 1992 in collaboration with local nongovernmental organizations. The approaches included review of available local data, assessment of STD case management practices and constraints, and development of specific STD control activities at the primary health care level, such as systematic s...

BACKGROUND I wanted to explore family physicians' perceptions of working in a group model health maintenance organization participating in ongoing quality improvement initiatives. METHODS I undertook a qualitative study using semistructured interviews with 24 family physicians in which there was specific inquiry about informants' perceptions of organizational and team functionality. RESULTS...

This paper summarizes the key findings of a U.S. study of 48 primary care physicians acting as gatekeepers in a large health maintenance organization to determine the effects of their cost containment role on the doctor patient relationship. Taylor highlights some of the findings and conclusions that he believes are relevant to the current and projected problems concerned with controlling cost...

OBJECTIVE To explore primary care physicians' experiences with domestic violence victims to determine the barriers to problem recognition and intervention in the primary care setting. DESIGN Ethnography, a qualitative research method involving the use of open-ended, semistructured interviews. SETTING An urban health maintenance organization serving a predominantly white, middle-income popul...

Vietnam has had a long history of international mission teams that volunteer needed surgical care to underserved populations for various medical problems. As senior medical students, we joined a non-profit organization's surgical mission trip led by a community practice surgeon and staffed by 32 health care professionals to provide cleft lip and palate reconstructions for 75 patients at a local...