The aim of the study was to generate and test a theory about connections between the quality of consultations and patient compliance in general practice. The theory was empirically based on patient interviews in order to understand the patient's perceptions and behaviour, and on development of a list for mapping of consultations, which in turn allowed coherent descriptions of consultations and compliance. The theory suggests and explains that compliance is connected with the fulfillment of six relatively simple criteria for the quality of consultations. The theory was tested by comparing predictions of compliance derived from analyses of 63 consultations with patient questionnaire based measurements of compliance. The difference between proportions of patients who were complaint after consultations fulfilling and not fulfilling respectively the criteria was 44%. The 95% confidence limits of this difference were 21% and 67%.
The article is a short summary of a PhD-thesis, which was accepted by the Faculty of Medicine, University of Copenhagen, May 1989. The thesis is written in Danish with an English summary. It can be obtained free at the Department of General Practice, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 18, DK-2100 Kfibenhavu 0, Denmark, as long as issues are still available.
In the first year of the medical curriculum at the University of Copenhagen, a new discipline has been introduced, in which general practice has the key position in providing experiences of early patient contact to the students. The course consists of three principal elements: student-patient contacts in the patient's home; lessons with the general practitioner; and lessons at the Institute of General Practice. The compulsory course is completed by a student's report, and the first course has been evaluated by qualitative analysis of these reports and by questionnaires to the students and GPs. The results indicate that it is possible to provide considerable improvement of the medical education as regards communication skills and understanding of the patients' perceptions, by letting the student establish contact with a patient in the very beginning of the curriculum. General practice provides an appropriate setting for this education for both teachers and patients.
The aim of the study was to describe and evaluate a controlled intervention to achieve more rational and economical drug therapy in general practice. The strategy was based on peer comparison feedback and encouragement of local peer group discussions. Seven districts comprising 53, and 6 districts comprising 55 eligible practices constituted the intervention and control groups respectively. The process was evaluated by questionnaires to the GPs. 88% found the feedback diagrams relevant, and 74% expressed a wish for information about prescribing of particular drugs. The outcome evaluation was based on computerized registration of prescriptions. During the study period of 6 months the median costs per prescription increased significantly in the control group, whereas there was no statistically significant change in the intervention group. There were no significant effects on the prescribed amounts.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.