BackgroundGeneral practitioners (GPs) often lack time and resources to invest in health education; audiovisual messages broadcast in the waiting room may be a useful educational tool. This work was designed to assess the effect of a message inviting patients to ask for a tetanus booster vaccination.MethodsA quasi experimental study was conducted in a Belgian medical practice consisting of 6 GPs and 4 waiting rooms (total: 20,000 contacts/year). A tetanus booster vaccination audiovisual message was continuously broadcast for 6 months in 2 randomly selected waiting rooms (intervention group - 3 GPs) while the other 2 waiting rooms remained unequipped (control group - 3 GPs). At the end of the 6-month period, the number of vaccine adult-doses delivered by local pharmacies in response to GPs' prescriptions was recorded. As a reference, the same data were also collected retrospectively for the general practice during the same 6-month period of the previous year.ResultsDuring the 6-month reference period where no audiovisual message was broadcast in the 4 waiting rooms, the number of prescriptions presented for tetanus vaccines was respectively 52 (0.44%) in the intervention group and 33 (0.38%) in the control group (p = 0.50). By contrast, during the 6-month study period, the number of prescriptions differed between the two groups (p < 0.0001), rising significantly to 91 (0.79%) in the intervention group (p = 0.0005) while remaining constant in the control group (0.38% vs 0.39%; p = 0.90).ConclusionsBroadcasting an audiovisual health education message in the GPs' waiting room was associated with a significant increase in the number of adult tetanus booster vaccination prescriptions delivered by local pharmacies.
Background: Cancer care has become complex, requiring healthcare professionals to collaborate to provide high-quality care. Multidisciplinary oncological team (MDT) meetings in the hospital have been implemented to coordinate individual cancer patients’ care. General practitioners (GPs) are invited to join, but their participation is minimal.Objectives: Aim of this study is to explore participating GPs’ perceptions of their current role and to understand their preferences towards effective role execution during MDT meetings.Methods: In May to June 2014, semi-structured interviews (n = 16) were conducted involving GPs with MDT experience in Belgium. The analysis was done according to qualitative content analysis principles.Results: Attendance of an MDT meeting is perceived as part of the GP’s work, especially for complex patient care situations. Interprofessional collaborative relationships and the GP’s perceived benefit to the MDT meeting discussions are important motivators to participate. Enhanced continuity of information flow and optimized organizational time management were practical aspects triggering the GP’s intention to participate. GPs valued the communication with the patient before and after the meeting as an integral part of the MDT dynamics.Conclusion: GPs perceive attendance of the MDT meeting as an integral part of their job. Suggestions are made to enhance the efficiency of the meetings.
Introduction: Focusing on the monthly prevalence of health problems and recourse to different levels of care of the population is an interesting approach to demonstrate the respective roles of different levels of health care. In the present study, the ecology of health care was studied in the region of Liè ge, Belgium. Method: A survey questioning people about their health problems was conducted in 2009 in two communes of the province of Liè ge. For each health problem, 'health care' was defined as contact with any qualified care provider. For each consultation, three elements were recorded: the profession of the health care provider; the place where the care was provided and the kind of health care received. Results: A total of 537 people were interviewed. The monthly prevalence of people who experienced a health problem during the previous month was 85.1%. The monthly prevalence of people who turned to a health care provider at least once during the month was 62.2%. The proportion of people turning to doctors, primarily local doctors, for a simple consultation was important (49.2%). Discussion: Our results are highly comparable with those of other studies. Recourse to a doctor is high (49%), which probably reflects the broad accessibility of health care in Belgium and maybe its overuse. Additional questions on the current and future organisation of the Belgian health care system are debated.
The objective of this report is to describe the characteristics of the COVID-19 pandemic in nursing homes (NH) in Belgium, particularly in the Walloon (or French-speaking) part, and the local measures initiated to meet the urgent needs of this sanitary crisis (1). This narrative review, including an author's critical approach, does not show an exhaustive list of all situations and initiatives. Belgian Health care organizationBelgium is a relatively small country, which covers 30.688 Km 2 and is organized as a federal state divided in three regions, which includes 11.431.406 inhabitants 6.589.069 (58%) in the Dutch part, 3.633.795 (32%) in the Walloon part, and 1.208.532 (10%) in the Brussels-Capital part (2). From the whole Belgian population, 2.504.716 people are ≥60-yearold (2). The competencies regarding organization and health care systems are divided between the federal competencies including the planification of medical resources (e.g. the number of hospitals, the number of representants of each medical specialty and material and financial resources) and three regional agencies (one for each region) in charge of the health care organization for the older people whether they live at home, in nursing homes or are hospitalized.Regarding the sanitary resources, a total of 7.462 beds in acute geriatric wards were available in 2019 (4.418 beds for the Dutch part, 2.346 beds for the Walloon part and 698 beds for Brussels-Capital part) (3). In the whole country, the number of beds available in nursing homes (NH) for people older than 60-year-old are around 135.000 (4-6). Providing some data about sanitary consequences of the COVID-19 crisisOn the 18th of May, the whole country had 55.559 confirmed Covid-19 cases, of which 9.183 in NHs. At that time, 9080 died to Covid-19, of which 4.646 in NHs (7) . According to the density of the population (city or countryside), the characteristics of the residents (number, median age, health and functional status, financial resources), the size and the architectural constraints (one single building or several short blocks, long corridors or several floors), the sanitary crisis was differently perceived from a NH to the other. Indeed some NHs did not register any covid-19 cases whereas others had up to 40% "suspected" covid-19 cases. The global feeling (selfefficiency or overloading) described by the caregivers was not the same across the different NHs. Federal, regional, and local recommendations and action plans
Les soins de santé primaires sont souvent évoqués, mais rarement définis. Cet article explore ce concept compris parfois différemment et révèle deux conceptions distinctes des soins de santé primaires, toutes deux issues de la Déclaration d’Alma Ata. Tant que l’expression « soins de santé primaires » pourra faire référence à deux types de contenus distincts, soit un niveau de soins, soit une approche globale du système de santé, il sera utile, en attendant un consensus sur sa définition, de la clarifier lors de son utilisation.
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