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Improving access for patients – a practice manager questionnaire
BACKGROUND: The administrative and professional consequences of access targets for general practices, as detailed in the new GMS contract, are unknown. This study researched the effect of implementing the access targets of the new GP contract on general practice appointment systems, and practice man...
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Formato: | Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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BioMed Central
2006
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1570467/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16784530 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2296-7-37 |
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author | Meade, James G Brown, James S |
author_facet | Meade, James G Brown, James S |
author_sort | Meade, James G |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: The administrative and professional consequences of access targets for general practices, as detailed in the new GMS contract, are unknown. This study researched the effect of implementing the access targets of the new GP contract on general practice appointment systems, and practice manager satisfaction in a UK primary health care setting. METHODS: A four-part postal questionnaire was administered. The questionnaire was modified from previously validated questionnaires and the findings compared with data obtained from the Western Health and Social Services Board (WHSSB) in N Ireland. Practice managers from the 59 general practices in the WHSSB responded to the questionnaire. RESULTS: There was a 94.9% response rate. Practice managers were generally satisfied with the introduction of access targets for patients. Some 57.1% of responding practices, most in deprived areas (Odds ratio 3.13 -95% CI 1.01 – 9.80, p = 0.0256) had modified their appointment systems. Less booking flexibility was reported among group practices (p = 0.006), urban practices (p < 0.001) and those with above average patient list sizes (p < 0.001). Receptionists had not received training in patient appointment management in a quarter of practices. Practices with smaller list sizes were more likely than larger ones to utilise nurses in seeing extra patients (p = 0.007) or to undertake triage procedures (p = 0.062). CONCLUSION: The findings demonstrated the ability of general practices within the WHSSB to adjust to a demanding component of the new GP contract. Issues relating to the flexibility of patient appointment booking systems, receptionists' training and the development of the primary care nursing role were highlighted by the study. |
format | Text |
id | pubmed-1570467 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2006 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-15704672006-09-21 Improving access for patients – a practice manager questionnaire Meade, James G Brown, James S BMC Fam Pract Research Article BACKGROUND: The administrative and professional consequences of access targets for general practices, as detailed in the new GMS contract, are unknown. This study researched the effect of implementing the access targets of the new GP contract on general practice appointment systems, and practice manager satisfaction in a UK primary health care setting. METHODS: A four-part postal questionnaire was administered. The questionnaire was modified from previously validated questionnaires and the findings compared with data obtained from the Western Health and Social Services Board (WHSSB) in N Ireland. Practice managers from the 59 general practices in the WHSSB responded to the questionnaire. RESULTS: There was a 94.9% response rate. Practice managers were generally satisfied with the introduction of access targets for patients. Some 57.1% of responding practices, most in deprived areas (Odds ratio 3.13 -95% CI 1.01 – 9.80, p = 0.0256) had modified their appointment systems. Less booking flexibility was reported among group practices (p = 0.006), urban practices (p < 0.001) and those with above average patient list sizes (p < 0.001). Receptionists had not received training in patient appointment management in a quarter of practices. Practices with smaller list sizes were more likely than larger ones to utilise nurses in seeing extra patients (p = 0.007) or to undertake triage procedures (p = 0.062). CONCLUSION: The findings demonstrated the ability of general practices within the WHSSB to adjust to a demanding component of the new GP contract. Issues relating to the flexibility of patient appointment booking systems, receptionists' training and the development of the primary care nursing role were highlighted by the study. BioMed Central 2006-06-19 /pmc/articles/PMC1570467/ /pubmed/16784530 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2296-7-37 Text en Copyright © 2006 Meade and Brown; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Meade, James G Brown, James S Improving access for patients – a practice manager questionnaire |
title | Improving access for patients – a practice manager questionnaire |
title_full | Improving access for patients – a practice manager questionnaire |
title_fullStr | Improving access for patients – a practice manager questionnaire |
title_full_unstemmed | Improving access for patients – a practice manager questionnaire |
title_short | Improving access for patients – a practice manager questionnaire |
title_sort | improving access for patients – a practice manager questionnaire |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1570467/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16784530 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2296-7-37 |
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