• Nemesio Moreno, Guillem Pera, Manolo Medina, Rosa Morral, and Clara Pareja.
• Direcció d'Atenció Primària Metropolitana Nord. Institut Català de la Salut, Barcelona, España. Electronic address: nmorenom.bnm.ics@gencat.cat.
• Aten Primaria. 2021 Jan 1; 53 (1): 67-72.

AimTo determine which variables determine the average annual attendance time per patient in Primary Care (PC) in Catalonia to improve the adequacy of the budget allocation.DesignCross-sectional ecological study.SettingThe Primary Care health centers (EAP) from the Institut Català de la Salut (ICS) in 2016.ParticipantsThe 285 EAPs from the ICS, which cover 75% of citizens over 14 years of age in Catalonia.Main MeasurementsAnnual average time of visits by a family doctor per patient for each EAP. It was studied how this time depended on potential explanatory variables, at the EAP level, using linear regression models.Resultsthe average visit time per patient/year was 49 minutes, varying between 23-87 minutes according to EAP. The EAPs with older population, more comorbidity, more home care, worse socioeconomic index, greater number of young pensioners and greater dispersion had more visiting time, while the EAPs with more population and more women expended less time to visit. These variables explained 64% of the visit time variability.ConclusionsThe budget allocation in PC can be based on a model that incorporates the main determinants of patient' frequentation and adapts to their real needs. It would be necessary to deepen those factors that depend on the professional or health organizations to finish finding an optimal model of resource allocation in the PC.Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

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