Piling high: a general practice registrar's unsolicited mail

Abstract

Objective: Design, setting and participant: A mixed‐methods, prospective, descriptive study of unsolicited mail sent directly to a general practice registrar in a private general practice located in rural north Queensland, collected between 1 March and 30 September 2010. Main outcome measures: The amount, by number and weight, of unsolicited mail items, and the proportion of each document read, in total and by category. Results: 196 items of unsolicited mail, weighing 19.85 kg, were received over a period of 7 months. The category with the largest number of mail items was pharmaceutical company correspondence (70; 36%), closely followed by medical tabloids and free journals (67; 34%). Medical tabloids and free journals made up the largest proportion of unsolicited mail by weight (15.49 kg; 78%). Of all 196 items, only 10 (5%) had more than half of their content read. Conclusions: Although small in size, this study suggests that a reduction in unsolicited mail to general practitioners in Australia would have benefits for GPs in terms of time management, environmental benefits, and reduction in frustration levels.

Evaluating the implementation of the 13-valent pneumococcal vaccine supplementary dose program in Australian primary health care settings

“…Only a minority of respondents remained unaware of the 13vPCV supplementary dose program. However, there were no particular characteristics common to these providers highlighted in the available data so their lack of awareness may have simply been a result of the information getting lost in the large volume of material received by primary care providers, particularly GPs [ 31 ]. However, the level of awareness about the program does not take into consideration survey non-respondents, most of whom had not ordered 13vPCV vaccine by the end of the survey period, and who were thus likely unaware, or potentially unsupportive, of the 13vPCV supplementary dose program (non-response bias) [ 32 ].…”