Is frequent attendance of longer duration related to less transient episodes of care? A retrospective analysis of transient and chronic episodes of care.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Frequent attenders (FAs) suffer more and consult general practitioners (GPs) more often for chronic physical and psychiatric illnesses, social difficulties and distress than non-FAs. However, it is unclear to what extent FAs present transient episodes of care (TECs) compared with non-FAs.

Design

Retrospective analysis of all episodes of care (ECs) in 15 116 consultations in 1 year. Reasons for encounter (RFEs) linked to patients' problem lists were defined as chronic ECs (CECs), other episodes as TECs.

Setting

1 Dutch urban primary healthcare centre served by 5 GPs.

Participants

All 5712 adult patients were enlisted between 2007 and 2009. FAs were patients whose attendance rate ranked within the top decile of their sex and age group in at least one o

SUBMITTER: Smits FT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5168647 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature