Dispositivo estructurado de intervenciones psicosociales en atención primaria: serie de casos retrospectiva / Structured psychosocial interventions in primary care: retrospective case series

Antecedentes: Más allá del pago por cápita, desde 2009 el Plan de Salud del Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires reconoció a los médicos de familia el pago por prestación de intervenciones psicosociales de cuarenta minutos de duración realizadas para promover el bienestar y la autonomía de sus pacientes. Objetivos: Describir los problemas que motivaron estas intervenciones y las redefiniciones diagnósticas que realizaron estos profesionales. Métodos: Fueron revisadas las fichas estructuradas de registro de 482 intervenciones psicosociales realizadas durante 2011 y codificadas mediante la Clasificación Internacional de la Atención Primaria (CIAP-2). Resultados: Los motivos de consulta más frecuentes fueron los sentimientos depresivos y/o de ansiedad (33,25 %), problemas familiares y/o vinculados a crisis vitales (16 %), dolor (9,56 %) y cansancio (2,91 %). Entre las redefiniciones diagnósticas predominaron las crisis vitales (15,45 %), los problemas de la relación conyugal o con hijos (14,61 %), y los trastornos depresivos y/o de ansiedad (27 %). Conclusiones: nuestro modelo de trabajo contribuyó a que en una gran proporción de pacientes que había consultado por dolor u otros síntomas generales, detectáramos, abordáramos y documentáramos el proceso de atención de problemas de la esfera psicosocial, que suele ser subregistrado con el abordaje biomédico clásico. (AU)

Background: Beyond capitation payment, since 2009 Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires Health Maintenance Organization incorporated "structured primary care psychosocial interventions" as a fee for service practice. They last 40 minutes and are undertaken by family physicians with the aim of improving the wellbeing of their patients and helping them to strengtheningtheir autonomy. Objectives: To identify chief complaints and problems (re)definitions carried out by family physicians. Methodology: 482 medical records written during 2011 were reviewed and coded according to the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC-2). Results: Most frequent chief complaints were depressive and/or anxious feelings (33.25 %), family problems and/or phasesof adult life problems (16 %), pain (9.56 %) and fatigue (2.91 %). Most common problem (re)definitions were life events(15.45 %), followed by marital or childrelated problems (14.61 %), and depressive and/or anxiety disorders (27 %). Conclusions: Our working model enabled us to identify, address and document psychosocial problems which are often underreported within the classical biomedical approach in a large proportion of patients whose chief complaint were painor other general symptoms. (AU)

[Job satisfaction among primary care physicians at the IMSS]. / Factores de satisfacción laboral en médicos familiares del IMSS.

OBJECTIVE: To know factors related to job satisfaction among primary care Physicians from the Mexican Social Security Institute. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Cross-sectional survey applied to physicians of outpatient visit areas in four Family Medicine Units in Leon, Guanajuato, from February to May 2007. The survey explored six areas. We used 95% confidence intervals and One-Way ANOVA to compare means among clinics and Chi square and OR'95% confidence intervals to compare proportions. RESULTS: One hundred sixty physicians participated (response rate 88.9%), three were excluded. Most physicians were satisfied with their work (86%). Half of the doctors feel satisfied with their economic benefits (48%), non-economic benefits (52%), and those from the collective bargaining agreement (53%), as well as with the labor union (46%) and their actual insurances (45%). Only one third or less of participants refer to receive incentives (31%) or recognitions for their work (33%), were satisfied with the opportunities for training (31%), the economic incentives (29%), or the salary (24%). The satisfaction's means of work, benefits, insurances, labor union and collective bargaining agreement were significantly higher than the means of salary and economic incentives. Satisfaction means were significantly higher in Clinic #53 than in Clinic #51 for job satisfaction and opportunities for training, as well as percentages of response in institutional support, incentives and recognitions for their work, were higher in Clinic 53 compared to all other clinics; however, it's the smallest clinic in this study. CONCLUSIONS: Family doctors find satisfaction in their practice, and factors such as institutional support, recognition and incentives may improve their general job satisfaction.

A multimodal strategy based on pay-per-performance to improve quality of care of family practitioners in Argentina.

Pay-for-performance has become increasingly common to complement physician reimbursement. We designed a quality framework to measure family physicians' performance in a managed care setting in Buenos Aires. We aimed to assess the effectiveness of a multimodal intervention based on pay-for-performance, teamwork, continuous education, and audit and feedback to improve quality. After 2 years, a significant improvement was observed in most of the indicators measuring clinical effectiveness and some improvements were observed in other domains. Despite these results, a better performance matrix is needed to capture not only specific conditions but also other aspects like integrating, prioritizing, and personalizing care.

Specialist versus primary care: not an easy question.

The central focus in the debate to reform our nation's health care system is on cost, quality, and access. There is general agreement that there are too many specialists in the wrong places, which is said to contribute to the rising cost of health care. Physician profiling has supported the concept that some specialists are more costly than primary care physicians, although the severity of illness in patients treated by specialists may often be greater. Increasing the number of primary care providers may be a solution to reduce costs and will clearly improve access. The study reported in this article was carried out to examine the efficiency of primary care physicians and endocrinologists, a specialty that has been cited as one in which resource utilization is high, in caring for hospital inpatients with diabetic ketoacidosis.

Evolution of a quality-based compensation model: the third generation.

U.S. Healthcare (USHC) contracts for care with primary care physicians who are compensated through capitation (i.e., a fixed payment at specific intervals per member for all care provided, irrespective of the number of services). The amount of capitation is dependent upon their quality assessment rating and their ability to manage the cost of care effectively. In January of 1992 USHC implemented its current, third-generation incentive model and significantly altered its Quality Care Compensation System. The evolution of this model is presented to demonstrate that this third-generation Quality Care Compensation Model is a fair and effective means of measuring and valuing the delivery of health care to a population. It rewards physicians who expend the extra effort to manage both quality and cost. The experience of USHC continues to demonstrate that it is possible to develop and monitor incentive mechanisms in a systematic fashion with quality improvement as the outcome.