Family practice
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Telephone triage is pivotal for evaluating the urgency of patient care, and in the Netherlands, the Netherlands Triage Standard (NTS) demonstrates moderate discrimination for chest pain. To address this, the Safety First Prediction Rule (SFPR) was developed to improve the safety of ruling out acute coronary syndrome (ACS) during telephone triage. ⋯ The SFPR proved robust for risk stratification in patients with acute chest pain seeking out-of-hours primary care in the Netherlands. Further prospective validation and implementation are warranted to refine and establish the rule's clinical utility.
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The existence of a stable usual source of care (USC) is fundamental to the provision of quality health care. However, no longitudinal studies have examined whether core primary care attributes influence the stability of USC status. ⋯ Our study indicates that primary care attributes play an important role in preventing the loss or change of USC and contribute to the stability of USC status. These findings provide additional rationale for policymakers, healthcare providers, and managers to seek to strengthen core attributes of primary care.
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Family physicians have a higher incidence of burnout, dissatisfaction, and disengagement compared to other medical specialties. Addressing burnout on the individual and systemic level is important to promoting wellness and preventing deleterious effects on physicians and patients. We used the Physician Wellness Inventory (PWI) to assess the effects of a wellness programme designed to equip family physicians with skills to address burnout. ⋯ The wellness programme shows improvement in PWI scores, indicating the programme content should be evaluated further for system level improvements.
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General practitioners (GPs) in Australia have an important role to play in preventing childhood obesity. Activities such as growth monitoring and promotion of healthy behaviours can contribute to obesity prevention efforts; however, the practicalities of how this is done are poorly documented. ⋯ Childhood obesity prevention through growth monitoring and healthy behaviour promotion is relevant to general practice; however, more support is needed to enable implementation and embed these practices day-to-day.
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Inclusion of patients in healthcare service and system planning is an increasingly important tool to improve healthcare systems worldwide. In 2012, a focused healthcare reform was initiated in Austria to strengthen the primary care sector which is still underway in 2023. ⋯ Appreciating and responding to patients' perceptions and needs, healthcare reform in Austria should include improvements regarding consultation/waiting time, coordination, and navigation in Primary Care. Successful healthcare reform has to include the patient voice.