Where do GPs seek help for their illnesses? / Hvor søker fastleger hjelp ved egen sykdom?

Background: Doctors generally enjoy good health, but often refrain from seeking help when they are ill. Self-treatment is widespread, and this can be an inappropriate and risky practice. Material and method: This is a registry study that compares GPs' own use of the primary and specialist health services in 2018 with a control group consisting of all others in the same age group with the same sex, level of education and health as the GPs. Morbidity in both groups was surveyed with the aid of two validated morbidity indexes in the period 2015-17. Only those who scored zero on both indexes were included. Results: While only 21.7 % of the GPs had sought help from a GP and 3.3 % had attended the emergency department, the corresponding figures for the control group were 61.6 % and 11.8 %. Of the GPs, 17.5 % consulted a contract specialist, compared to 15.5 % of the control group. Measured as a proportion of all specialist consultations, consultations with a psychiatrist constituted 35 % for GPs and 13 % for others. There were small differences in the use of somatic outpatient clinics (25.9 % of GPs and 25.7 % of the control group) and acute admission in somatic hospitals (3.8 % of GPs and 3.3 % of the control group). Interpretation: This study indicates that GPs receive medical assistance from other than their own GP.

Continuity and breaches in GP care and their associations with mortality for patients with chronic disease: an observational study using Norwegian registry data.

BACKGROUND: Despite many benefits of continuity of care with a named regular GP (RGP), continuity is deteriorating in many countries. AIM: To investigate the association between RGP continuity and mortality, in a personal list system, in addition to examining how breaches in continuity affect this association for patients with chronic diseases. DESIGN AND SETTING: A registry-based observational study using Norwegian primary care consultation data for patients with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes mellitus, or heart failure. METHOD: The Usual Provider of Care (UPC, value 0-1) Index was used to measure both disease-related (UPCdisease) and overall (UPCall) continuity with the RGP at the time of consultation. In most analyses, patients who changed RGP during the study period were excluded. In the combined group of all four chronic conditions, the proportion of consultations with other GPs and out-of-hours services was calculated. Cox regression models calculated the associations between continuity during 2013-2016 and mortality in 2017-2018. RESULTS: Patients with COPD with UPCdisease <0.25 had 47% increased risk of dying within 2 years (hazard ratio 1.47, 95% confidence interval = 1.22 to 1.64) compared with those with UPCdisease ≥0.75. Mortality also increased with decreasing UPCdisease for patients with heart failure and decreasing UPCall for those with diabetes. In the combined group of chronic conditions, mortality increased with decreasing UPCall. This latter association was also found for patients who had changed RGP. CONCLUSION: Higher disease-related and overall RGP UPC are both associated with lower mortality. However, changing RGP did not significantly affect mortality, indicating a compensatory benefit of informational and management continuity in a patient list system.

The MeSH heading "Call Center" is due for an update: why we recommend the more precise heading "Emergency Medical Communication Center".

Call centers can be found in various industries. However as a Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) the term "Call centers" does not reflect the critical purpose of handling emergency calls. We recommend "emergency medical communication center(s)", as this provides clarity and precision regarding the primary function and purpose of the center.

Primary care doctors in acute call-outs to severe trauma incidents in Norway - associations with factors related to patients and doctors.

OBJECTIVE: Severe trauma patients need immediate prehospital intervention and transfer to a specialised trauma hospital. In Norway, primary care doctors (PCDs) are an integrated part of the prehospital trauma care. The aim of this study was to investigate the degree to which PCDs were involved in prehospital care of severe trauma patients and how factors related to patients and doctors were associated with call-outs to these incidents. DESIGN: This was a registry-based study in Norway on severe trauma patients with acute hospital admission during the period 2012-2018. SETTING: Data was obtained from three Norwegian official registries. SUBJECTS: By linking the registries, we studied the actions taken by the PCDs, whether they called out to severe trauma incidents. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: In multivariable regression models, we investigated whether factors related to the PCDs (age, sex, specialisation in general practice (GP)) and patients (age, sex, duration of hospital stay, type of injury) were associated with call-outs. RESULTS: Out of 4342 severe trauma incidents, PCDs had documented involvement in 1683 (39%) and called out to 644 (15%). Increased proportions of PCD call-outs to severe trauma incidents were significantly associated with lower age of PCD, being a GP specialist, lower patient age, being a male patient, increased length of hospital stay and injuries to the head and the neck. CONCLUSIONS: PCDs called out to a relatively low proportion of severe trauma patients. Several factors related to patients and doctors were associated with call-outs to severe trauma incidents in Norway.

Factors related to doctors and patients affect the Primary Care Doctor's (PCD's) decision to call out to severe trauma incidents.PCDs were involved in 39% out of 4342 severe trauma incidents and called out to 15%.Increased proportion of PCD call-outs to severe trauma incidents was significantly associated with lower age of the PCD and being a GP specialist.Lower patient age, being a male patient, and injury to the head and the neck increased the likelihood of PCD call-outs.

Continuity of care and mortality for patients with chronic disease: an observational study using Norwegian registry data.

BACKGROUND: Research on continuity of care (CoC) is mainly conducted in primary care and has received little acknowledgment in other levels of care. This study sought to investigate CoC across care levels for patients with selected chronic diseases, along with its association with mortality. METHODS: In a registry-based cohort study, patients with ≥1 consultation in primary or specialist healthcare or hospital admission with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes mellitus, or heart failure in 2012 were linked to disease-related consultation data in 2013-2016. CoC was measured by Usual Provider of Care index (UPC) and Bice-Boxermann continuity of care score (COCI). Values equal to one were categorized into one group and the rest into three equal groups (tertiles). The association with mortality was determined by Cox regression models. RESULTS: The highest mean UPCtotal was measured for patients with diabetes mellitus (0.58) and the lowest for those with asthma (0.46). The population with heart failure had the highest death rate (26.5). In adjusted Cox regression analyses for COPD, mortality was 2.6 times higher (95% CI 2.25-3.04) for patients in the lowest tertile of continuity compared to those with UPCtotal = 1. Patients with diabetes mellitus and heart failure showed similar results. CONCLUSION: CoC was moderate to high for disease-related contacts across care levels. A higher mortality associated with lower CoC was observed for patients with COPD, diabetes mellitus, and heart failure. A similar, but not statistically significant trend was found for patients with asthma. This study suggests that higher CoC across levels of care can decrease mortality.

The impact of variation in out-of-hours doctors' referral practices: a Norwegian registry-based observational study.

BACKGROUND: In a gatekeeping system, the individual doctor's referral practice is an important factor for hospital activity and patient safety. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to investigate the variation in out-of-hours (OOH) doctors' referral practice, and to explore these variations' impact on admissions for selected diagnoses reflecting severity, and 30-day mortality. METHODS: National data from the doctors' claims database were linked with hospital data in the Norwegian Patient Registry. Based on the doctor's individual referral rate adjusted for local organizational factors, the doctors were sorted into quartiles of low-, medium-low-, medium-high-, and high-referral practice. The relative risk (RR) for all referrals and for selected discharge diagnoses was calculated using generalized linear models. RESULTS: The OOH doctors' mean referral rate was 110 referrals per 1,000 consultations. Patients seeing a doctor in the highest referring practice quartile had higher likelihood of being referred to hospital and diagnosed with the symptom of pain in throat and chest, abdominal pain, and dizziness compared with the medium-low quartile (RR 1.63, 1.49, and 1.95). For the critical conditions of acute myocardial infarction, acute appendicitis, pulmonary embolism, and stroke, we found a similar, but weaker, association (RR 1.38, 1.32, 1.24, and 1.19). The 30-day mortality among patients not referred did not differ between the quartiles. CONCLUSIONS: Doctors with high-referral practice referred more patients who were later discharged with all types of diagnoses, including serious and critical conditions. With low-referral practice, severe conditions might have been overlooked, although the 30-day mortality was not affected.

A major task for primary care doctors working out-of-hours (OOH) is to refer patients in need of acute specialized care to hospital. Acute referrals capture the major dilemma of not missing critically ill patients without overloading the hospital capacity. There is a known variation in referral practice between OOH doctors, and here we asked what impact this variation has for OOH patients. We divided OOH doctors in Norway into 4 groups according to their referral practice low, medium-low, medium-high, and high. Low had few referrals as a proportion of the total consultations, while the high group had many. If the patient saw a doctor in the high-referral group, there was an increased likelihood to be referred to hospital and given a symptom diagnosis, indicating that no severe disease was revealed. High-referral practice therefore may lead to more avoidable admissions. However, we also found the same but weaker effect for some critical conditions (heart infarction, acute appendicitis, pulmonary embolism, and stroke). Therefore, a low-referral practice may increase the risk of critical conditions being overlooked. These aspects of referral practice variation should be taken into consideration and call for strengthening the OOH framework for decision making regarding acute referrals.

Preparedness and management during the first phase of the COVID-19 outbreak - a survey among emergency primary care services in Norway.

BACKGROUND: The emergency primary care (EPC) services in Norway have been at the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic. Knowledge about the EPC services' management of the COVID-19 outbreak can be used to prepare for future outbreaks and improve patient management. The objectives of this study were to identify pandemic preparedness and management strategies in EPC centres in Norway during the COVID-19 outbreak. METHODS: Questions regarding patient management of the COVID-19 outbreak were included in data collection for the National Out-Of-Hours Services Registry. The data collection was web-based, and an invitation was sent by email to the managers of all EPC services in Norway in June 2020. The EPC services were asked questions about pre-pandemic preparedness, access to personal protective equipment (PPE), organizational measures taken, and how staffing was organized during the onset of the pandemic. RESULTS: There were 169 municipal and inter-municipal EPC services in Norway in 2020, and all responded to the questionnaire. Among the EPC services, 66.7% (n = 112) had a pandemic plan, but only 4.2% had performed training for pandemic preparedness. Further, fewer than half of the EPC centres (47.5%) had access to supplies of PPE, and 92.8% answered that they needed extra supplies of PPE. 75.3% of the EPC services established one or more respiratory clinics. Staffing with other personnel than usual was done in 44.6% (n = 74) of the EPC services. All EPC services except one implemented new strategies for assessing patients, while about half of the wards implemented new strategies for responding to emergency calls. None of the largest EPC services experienced that their pandemic plan was adequate, while 13.3% of the medium-sized EPC services and 48.9% of the small EPC services reported having an adequate pandemic plan. CONCLUSIONS: Even though the EPC services lacked well-tested plans and had insufficient supplies of PPE at the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, most services adapted to the pandemic by altering the ways they worked and by hiring health care professionals from other disciplines. These observations may help decision makers plan for future pandemics.

Construction and validation of a morbidity index based on the International Classification of Primary Care.

OBJECTIVES: In epidemiological studies it is often necessary to describe morbidity. The aim of the present study is to construct and validate a morbidity index based on the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC-2). DESIGN AND SETTING: This is a cohort study based on linked data from national registries. An ICPC morbidity index was constructed based on a list of longstanding health problems in earlier published Scottish data from general practice and adapted to diagnostic ICPC-2 codes recorded in Norwegian general practice 2015 - 2017. SUBJECTS: The index was constructed among Norwegian born people only (N = 4 509 382) and validated in a different population, foreign-born people living in Norway (N = 959 496). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Predictive ability for death in 2018 in these populations was compared with the Charlson index. Multiple logistic regression was used to identify morbidities with the highest odds ratios (OR) for death and predictive ability for different combinations of morbidities was estimated by the area under receiver operating characteristic curves (AUC). RESULTS: An index based on 18 morbidities was found to be optimal, predicting mortality with an AUC of 0.78, slightly better than the Charlson index (AUC 0.77). External validation in a foreign-born population yielded an AUC of 0.76 for the ICPC morbidity index and 0.77 for the Charlson index. CONCLUSIONS: The ICPC morbidity index performs equal to the Charlson index and can be recommended for use in data materials collected in primary health care.Key pointsThis is the first morbidity index based on the International Classification of Primary Care, 2nd edition (ICPC-2)It predicted mortality equal to the Charlson index and validated acceptably in a different populationThe ICPC morbidity index can be used as an adjustment variable in epidemiological research in primary care databases.

Reasons for acute referrals to hospital from general practitioners and out-of-hours doctors in Norway: a registry-based observational study.

BACKGROUND: General practitioners (GPs) and out-of-hours (OOH) doctors are gatekeepers to acute hospital admissions in many healthcare systems. The aim of the present study was to investigate the whole range of reasons for acute referrals to somatic hospitals from GPs and OOH doctors and referral rates for the most common reasons. We wanted to explore the relationship between some common referral diagnoses and the discharge diagnosis, and associations with patient's gender, age, and GP or OOH doctor referral. METHODS: A registry-based study was performed by linking national data from primary care in the physicians' claims database with hospital services data in the Norwegian Patient Registry (NPR). The referring GP or OOH doctor was defined as the physician who had sent a claim for the patient within 24 h prior to an acute hospital stay. The reason for referral was defined as the ICPC-2 diagnosis used in the claim; the discharge diagnoses (ICD-10) came from NPR. RESULTS: Of all 265,518 acute hospital referrals from GPs or OOH doctors in 2017, GPs accounted for 43% and OOH doctors 57%. The overall referral rate per contact was 0.01 from GPs and 0.11 from OOH doctors, with large variations by referral diagnosis. Abdominal pain (D01) (8%) and chest pain (A11) (5%) were the most frequent referral diagnoses. For abdominal pain and chest pain referrals the most frequent discharge diagnosis was the corresponding ICD-10 symptom diagnosis, whereas for pneumonia-, appendicitis-, acute myocardial infarction- and stroke referrals the corresponding disease diagnosis was most frequent. Women referred with chest pain were less likely to be discharged with ischemic heart disease than men. CONCLUSIONS: The reasons for acute referral to somatic hospitals from GPs and OOH doctors comprise a wide range of reasons, and the referral rates vary according to the severity of the condition and the different nature between GP and OOH services. Referral rates for OOH contacts were much higher than for GP contacts. Patient age, gender and referring service influence the relationship between referral and discharge diagnosis.

Continuity in general practice as predictor of mortality, acute hospitalisation, and use of out-of-hours care: a registry-based observational study in Norway.

BACKGROUND: Continuity, usually considered a quality aspect of primary care, is under pressure in Norway, and elsewhere. AIM: To analyse the association between longitudinal continuity with a named regular general practitioner (RGP) and use of out-of-hours (OOH) services, acute hospital admission, and mortality. DESIGN AND SETTING: Registry-based observational study in Norway covering 4 552 978 Norwegians listed with their RGPs. METHOD: Duration of RGP-patient relationship was used as explanatory variable for the use of OOH services, acute hospital admission, and mortality in 2018. Several patient-related and RGP-related covariates were included in the analyses by individual linking to high-quality national registries. Duration of RGP-patient relationship was categorised as 1, 2-3, 4-5, 6-10, 11-15, or >15 years. Results are given as adjusted odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) resulting from multilevel logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: Compared with a 1-year RGP-patient relationship, the OR for use of OOH services decreased gradually from 0.87 (95% CI = 0.86 to 0.88) after 2-3 years' duration to 0.70 (95% CI = 0.69 to 0.71) after >15 years. OR for acute hospital admission decreased gradually from 0.88 (95% CI = 0.86 to 0.90) after 2-3 years' duration to 0.72 (95% CI = 0.70 to 0.73) after >15 years. OR for dying decreased gradually from 0.92 (95% CI = 0.86 to 0.98) after 2-3 years' duration, to 0.75 (95% CI = 0.70 to 0.80) after an RGP-patient relationship of >15 years. CONCLUSION: Length of RGP-patient relationship is significantly associated with lower use of OOH services, fewer acute hospital admissions, and lower mortality. The presence of a dose-response relationship between continuity and these outcomes indicates that the associations are causal.

Continuity of care for patients with chronic disease: a registry-based observational study from Norway.

BACKGROUND: Continuity of care (CoC) is accepted as a core value of primary care and is especially appreciated by patients with chronic conditions. Nevertheless, there are few studies investigating CoC for these patients across levels of healthcare. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate CoC for patients with somatic chronic diseases, both with regular general practitioners (RGPs) and across care levels. METHODS: We conducted a registry-based observational study by using nationwide consultation data from Norwegian general practices, out-of-hours services, hospital outpatient care, and private specialists with public contracts. Patients with diabetes mellitus (type I or II), asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or heart failure in 2012, who had ≥2 consultations with these diagnoses during 2014 were included. CoC was measured during 2014 by using the usual provider of care (UPC) index and Bice-Boxerman continuity of care score (COCI). Both indices have a value between 0 and 1. RESULTS: Patients with diabetes mellitus comprised the largest study population (N = 79,165) and heart failure the smallest (N = 4,122). The highest mean UPC and COCI were measured for patients with heart failure, 0.75 and 0.77, respectively. UPC increased gradually with age for all diagnoses, while COCI showed this trend only for asthma. Both indices had higher values in urban areas. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that CoC in Norwegian healthcare system is achieved for a majority of patients with chronic diseases. Patients with heart failure had the highest continuity with their RGP. Higher CoC was associated with older age and living in urban areas.

Correction to: General practitioners' and out-of-hours doctors' role as gatekeeper in emergency admissions to somatic hospitals in Norway: registry-based observational study.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

General practitioners' and out-of-hours doctors' role as gatekeeper in emergency admissions to somatic hospitals in Norway: registry-based observational study.

BACKGROUND: Primary care doctors have a gatekeeper function in many healthcare systems, and strategies to reduce emergency hospital admissions often focus on general practitioners' (GPs') and out-of-hours (OOH) doctors' role. The aim of the present study was to investigate these doctors' role in emergency admissions to somatic hospitals in the Norwegian public healthcare system, where GPs and OOH doctors have a distinct gatekeeper function. METHODS: A cross-sectional analysis was performed by linking data from the Norwegian Patient Registry (NPR) and the physicians' claims database. The referring doctor was defined as the physician who had sent a claim for a consultation with the patient within 24 h prior to an emergency admission. If there was no claim registered prior to hospital arrival, the admission was defined as direct, representing admissions from ambulance services, referrals from nursing home doctors, and admissions initiated by in-hospital doctors. RESULTS: In 2014 there were 497,845 emergency admissions to somatic hospitals in Norway after excluding birth related conditions. Referrals by OOH doctors were most frequent (36%), 35% were direct admissions, 28% were referred by GPs, whereas only 2% were referred from outpatient clinics or private specialists with public contract. Direct admissions were more common in central areas (45%), here GPs' referrals constituted only 18%. The prehospital paths varied with the hospital discharge diagnosis. For anaemias, 52­56% were referred by GPs, for acute appendicitis and mental/alcohol related disorders 57% and 56% were referred by OOH doctors, respectively. For malignant neoplasms 56% and cardiac arrest 57% were direct admissions. CONCLUSIONS: GPs or OOH doctors referred many emergencies to somatic hospitals, and for some clinical conditions GPs' and OOH doctors' gatekeeping role was substantial. However, a significant proportion of the emergency admissions was direct, and this reduces the impact of the GPs' and OOH doctors' gatekeeper roles, even in a strict gatekeeping system.

[Electronic emergency preparedness plans in Norwegian out-of-hours centres]. / Elektronisk kommunal beredskapsplan i legevaktsentral.

BACKGROUND: All Norwegian municipalities have prepared local emergency plans, but the usefulness of such plans has not been evaluated. The aim was to investigate how such an electronic plan is used in emergency situations in one of these municipalities (Askøy), with focus on quality work and the function of the local emergency medical communication centre(LEMC). MATERIAL AND METHODS: During 20 months all events that activated the emergency plan were registered and evaluated, either by evaluation meetings or otherwise. A structured questionnaire was sent to all participants in the local emergency services before and after the registrations. RESULTS: Ten emergency events were registered during the project period; 38 topics worked well, 52 topics had potential for improvement and 16 were deviations from the plan. Examples of evaluated topics are raising alarm and giving feedback within the services, use of nationwide radio communication system, on-site cooperation and use of the plan. In retrospect mapping of events showed that more situations could have led to activation of the plan. The questionnaire revealed that 70 % of respondents meant the cooperation was good or very good, both before and after the registrations. There were few changes in the answers before and after the project period. INTERPRETATION: An electronic emergency-preparedness plan used in emergency medical communication centres is a suitable tool in quality work and can be a valuable tool for evaluation of emergency situations.

[Organization of Norwegian out-of-hours primary health care services]. / Organisering av legevakt.

BACKGROUND: The organization of out-of-hours primary health care services in Norway is currently changing from municipal-based to larger inter-municipal co-operations with regular employees and improved competence. The Norwegian Medical Association and others have encouraged the establishment of larger out-of-hours primary health care units that include all municipalities and regular GPs and serve the entire population. More data are needed to study the situation for out-of-hours services in Norway. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The National Centre for Emergency Primary Health Care sent questionnaires to all 433 municipalities in Norway the autumn of 2005 to study how the out-of-hours primary health services are organized. RESULTS: Out-of-hours primary health services is an inter-municipality endeavour in two-thirds of Norwegian municipalities and one third of the remaining municipalities have plans to start such co-operation. Regular GPs participate in out-of-hours services to a varying degree. In half of the municipalities all regular GPs participate in out-of-hours duty. Participation decreases with increasing numbers of inhabitants and regular GPs in the municalities. We found a distinct variation in the number of phone calls per inhabitant to municipal out-of-hours services. Due to geographical factors, there are also variations in patient transport time and availability of ambulances to the out-of-hours offices. INTERPRETATION: We observed distinct variations in the organization of the out-of-hours emergency primary health services in Norway. Some of these differences are due to differences in population density and geographical factors.

[Locations, facilities and routines in Norwegian out-of-hours emergency primary health care services]. / Beliggenhet, lokaler og rutiner ved norske legevakter.

BACKGROUND: Limited data are available on casualty clinic facilities and localisation, inter-municipal co-operation and routines for out-of-hours services in the 433 Norwegian municipalities. The National centre for emergency primary health care collected data on these issues from October 2005 until February 2006. METHOD: Questionnaires concerning organisation of the out-of-hours services, casualty clinic facilities, locations and routines were sent to every Norwegian municipality. RESULTS: 282 of the 433 municipalities are in charge of out-of-hours services in 262 districts in the evenings and 230 districts during nights and weekends. There is inter-municipal cooperation in 100 of the districts. Most out-of-hours services are located in one casualty clinic in the host municipality and have the same locations as GP surgeries and laboratories. Most clinics offered the same services, but some routines were different. About half of the casualty clinics had a system for training of doctors and other health personnel. Half of the doctors on duty were available on the emergency communications system (radio). User assessments were collected, telephone calls documented and discrepancies reported to a varying degree, and medical histories were not consistently sent to regular GPs. INTERPRETATION: Inter-municipal co-operations are most common in areas with a high population density, i.e. in southern and eastern parts of Norway. Varying routines in out-of-hours service districts indicate that several municipalities do not fulfil all the obligations in regulations from the Ministry of health and care services in Norway.