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Measuring access to primary care appointments: a review of methods

BACKGROUND: Patient access to primary care appointments is not routinely measured despite the increasing interest in this aspect of practice activity. The generation of standardised data (or benchmarks) for access could inform developments within primary care organisations and act as a quality marke...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Jones, Wendy, Elwyn, Glyn, Edwards, Peter, Edwards, Adrian, Emmerson, Melody, Hibbs, Richard
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2003
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC169167/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12846934
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2296-4-8
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author Jones, Wendy
Elwyn, Glyn
Edwards, Peter
Edwards, Adrian
Emmerson, Melody
Hibbs, Richard
author_facet Jones, Wendy
Elwyn, Glyn
Edwards, Peter
Edwards, Adrian
Emmerson, Melody
Hibbs, Richard
author_sort Jones, Wendy
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Patient access to primary care appointments is not routinely measured despite the increasing interest in this aspect of practice activity. The generation of standardised data (or benchmarks) for access could inform developments within primary care organisations and act as a quality marker for clinical governance. Logically the setting of targets should be based on a sound system of measurement. The practicalities of developing appropriate measures need debate. Therefore we aimed to search for and compare methods that have been published or are being developed to measure patient access to primary care appointments, with particular focus on finding methods using appointment system data. METHOD: A search and review was made of the primary care literature from 1990 to 2001, which included an assessment of online resources (websites) and communication with recognised experts. The identified methods were assessed. RESULTS: The published literature in this specific area was not extensive but revealed emerging interest in the late 1990s. Two broad approaches to the measurement of waiting times to GP appointments were identified. Firstly, appointment systems in primary care organisations were analysed in differing ways to provide numerical data and, secondly, patient perceptions (reports) of access were evaluated using survey techniques. Six different methods were found which were based on appointment systems data. CONCLUSION: The two approaches of either using patient questionnaires or appointment system data are methods that represent entirely different aims. The latter method when used to represent patient waiting times for 'routine' elective appointments seems to hold promise as a useful tool and this avoids the definitional problems that surround 'urgent' appointments. The purpose for which the data is being collected needs to be borne in mind and will determine the chosen methods of data retrieval and representation.
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spelling pubmed-1691672003-08-06 Measuring access to primary care appointments: a review of methods Jones, Wendy Elwyn, Glyn Edwards, Peter Edwards, Adrian Emmerson, Melody Hibbs, Richard BMC Fam Pract Research Article BACKGROUND: Patient access to primary care appointments is not routinely measured despite the increasing interest in this aspect of practice activity. The generation of standardised data (or benchmarks) for access could inform developments within primary care organisations and act as a quality marker for clinical governance. Logically the setting of targets should be based on a sound system of measurement. The practicalities of developing appropriate measures need debate. Therefore we aimed to search for and compare methods that have been published or are being developed to measure patient access to primary care appointments, with particular focus on finding methods using appointment system data. METHOD: A search and review was made of the primary care literature from 1990 to 2001, which included an assessment of online resources (websites) and communication with recognised experts. The identified methods were assessed. RESULTS: The published literature in this specific area was not extensive but revealed emerging interest in the late 1990s. Two broad approaches to the measurement of waiting times to GP appointments were identified. Firstly, appointment systems in primary care organisations were analysed in differing ways to provide numerical data and, secondly, patient perceptions (reports) of access were evaluated using survey techniques. Six different methods were found which were based on appointment systems data. CONCLUSION: The two approaches of either using patient questionnaires or appointment system data are methods that represent entirely different aims. The latter method when used to represent patient waiting times for 'routine' elective appointments seems to hold promise as a useful tool and this avoids the definitional problems that surround 'urgent' appointments. The purpose for which the data is being collected needs to be borne in mind and will determine the chosen methods of data retrieval and representation. BioMed Central 2003-07-07 /pmc/articles/PMC169167/ /pubmed/12846934 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2296-4-8 Text en Copyright © 2003 Jones et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original URL.
spellingShingle Research Article
Jones, Wendy
Elwyn, Glyn
Edwards, Peter
Edwards, Adrian
Emmerson, Melody
Hibbs, Richard
Measuring access to primary care appointments: a review of methods
title Measuring access to primary care appointments: a review of methods
title_full Measuring access to primary care appointments: a review of methods
title_fullStr Measuring access to primary care appointments: a review of methods
title_full_unstemmed Measuring access to primary care appointments: a review of methods
title_short Measuring access to primary care appointments: a review of methods
title_sort measuring access to primary care appointments: a review of methods
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC169167/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12846934
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2296-4-8
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