RESUMO
AIM: An anonymous survey was performed in a sample of 454 adult patients from the catchment population of eight family medicine teams at Dugave-Travno Clinic in Zagreb to assess their attitudes towards the family physician concept, its advantages and shortcomings. These family medicine teams providing care for 16,077 insures also the number of families with all their members receiving care from these teams. METHOD: The method of descriptive statistics was used. RESULTS: Data were obtained on the number of families where only some members received care at the same physician's office and on the proportion of individual family members receiving care at family medicine offices. The sample indicated that more than half of patients received care from the same family physician, and that only one tenth of patients were without their family medical file. Study subjects considered that the family doctor institution contributed to improved care and were aware of the advantages of the family doctor concept. The concept of comprehensive family treatment could currently be implemented in half of the patients. However, the other half are broken up, receiving medical care at offices of different teams. CONCLUSION: The family physician concept could be implemented in two ways: exchange of the insures among the teams at a particular clinic providing care for defined populations, and in administrative way. The family physician concept would require two strategic decisions: establishment and development of group practice, and virtual linkage of the family member medical data through an integrated primary health care information system.