Bmc Fam Pract
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In the Netherlands, primary out-of-hours (OOH) care is provided by large scale General Practitioner (GP) cooperatives. GP cooperatives can be contacted by patients living in the area surrounding the GP cooperative (catchment area) at hours when the patient's own general practice is closed. The frequency of primary OOH care use substantially differs between GP cooperative catchment areas. To enable a better match between supply and demand of OOH services, understanding of the factors associated with primary OOH care use is essential. The present study evaluated the contribution of sociodemographic composition of the neighbourhood in explaining differences in primary OOH care use between GP cooperative catchment areas. ⋯ Although part of the variation between GP cooperatives could not be attributed to neighbourhood characteristics, the sociodemographic composition of the neighbourhood is a fair predictor of the demand of primary OOH care. Accordingly, this study provides a useful starting point for an improved planning of the supply of primary OOH care.
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Prevention and management of workplace violence among health workers has been described in different health care settings. However, little is known about which phenomena the emergency primary health care (EPC) organization should attend to in their strategies for preventing and managing it. In the current study, we therefore explored how EPC personnel have dealt with threats and violence from visitors or patients, focusing on how organizational factors affected the incidents. ⋯ Our study shows a potential for development of better organizational strategies for protecting EPC personnel who are at risk from workplace violence.
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Observational Study
Association between general practice characteristics and use of out-of-hours GP cooperatives.
The use of out-of-hours healthcare services for non-urgent health problems is believed to be related to the organisation of daytime primary care but insight into underlying mechanisms is limited. Our objective was to examine the association between daytime general practice characteristics and the use of out-of-hours care GP cooperatives. ⋯ Besides patient population characteristics, organisational characteristics of general practices are associated with lower use of out-of-hours care. Improving accessibility and availability of day time primary day care might be a potential effective way to improve the efficient use of out-of-hours care services.