[Primary Care frequentation determinants in Catalonia]. / Determinantes de la frecuentación en Atención Primaria en Cataluña.

AIM: To determine which variables determine the average annual attendance time per patient in Primary Care (PC) in Catalonia to improve the adequacy of the budget allocation. DESIGN: Cross-sectional ecological study. SETTING: The Primary Care health centers (EAP) from the Institut Català de la Salut (ICS) in 2016. PARTICIPANTS: The 285 EAPs from the ICS, which cover 75% of citizens over 14 years of age in Catalonia. MAIN MEASUREMENTS: Annual average time of visits by a family doctor per patient for each EAP. It was studied how this time depended on potential explanatory variables, at the EAP level, using linear regression models. RESULTS: the average visit time per patient/year was 49 minutes, varying between 23-87 minutes according to EAP. The EAPs with older population, more comorbidity, more home care, worse socioeconomic index, greater number of young pensioners and greater dispersion had more visiting time, while the EAPs with more population and more women expended less time to visit. These variables explained 64% of the visit time variability. CONCLUSIONS: The budget allocation in PC can be based on a model that incorporates the main determinants of patient' frequentation and adapts to their real needs. It would be necessary to deepen those factors that depend on the professional or health organizations to finish finding an optimal model of resource allocation in the PC.

Variability in screening prevention activities in primary care in Spain: a multilevel analysis.

BACKGROUND: Despite evidence of the benefits of prevention activities, studies have reported only partial integration and great variability of screening in daily clinical practice. The study objectives were: 1) To describe Primary Health Care (PHC) screening for arterial hypertension, dyslipidaemia, obesity, tobacco use, and excessive alcohol consumption in 2008 in 2 regions of Spain, based on electronic health records, and 2) To assess and quantify variability in screening, and identify factors (of patient, general practitioners and PHC team) associated with being screened, that are common throughout the PHC population. METHODS: Multicentre, cross-sectional study of individuals aged ≥ 16 years (N = 468,940) who visited the 426 general practitioners (GPs) in 44 PHC teams in Catalonia and Navarre in 2008. OUTCOMES: screening for hypertension, dyslipidaemia, obesity, tobacco use, and excessive alcohol consumption. Other variables were considered at the individual (sociodemographics, visits, health problems), GP and PHC team (region among others). Individual and contextual factors associated with the odds of being screened and the variance attributable to each level were identified using the SAS PROC GLIMMIX macro. RESULTS: The most prevalent screenings were for dyslipidaemia (64.4%) and hypertension (50.8%); the least prevalent was tobacco use (36.6%). Overall, the odds of being screened were higher for women, older patients, those with more comorbidities, more cardiovascular risk factors, and more frequent office visits, and those assigned to a female GP, a GP with a lower patient load, or a PHC team with a lower percentage of patients older than 65 years. On average, individuals in Navarre were less likely to be screened than those in Catalonia. Hypertension and dyslipidaemia screenings had the least unexplained variability between PHC teams and GPs, respectively, after adjusting for individual and contextual factors. CONCLUSIONS: Of the studied screenings, those for obesity, tobacco, and alcohol use were the least prevalent. Attention to screening, especially for tobacco and alcohol, can be greatly improved in the PHC setting.

Creation and Implementation of a New Sentinel Surveillance Model in Pharmacy Offices in Southern Europe.

Traditionally, health sentinel networks have focused on the reporting of data by primary care physicians and hospitals, ignoring the role of the community pharmacist as an expert in drugs. The objective of this study was to describe a method for creating a network of sentinel pharmacies in a region of Southern Europe in order to have a pharmaceutical surveillance system that is representative of the territory to be monitored and that can respond to any events or incidents that can be followed up by the community pharmacy. The creation process was carried out in three phases: a first phase of selection through a cluster and population analysis and a final adjustment, a second phase of voluntariness and random selection, and a third phase of training and implementation of the network. A sentinel network of 75 community pharmacies has been established in Catalonia. The network monitors 2.47% of the total population with a homogeneous proportion of urban (42), rural (30), and mountain-area (3) pharmacies based on the particular characteristics of the territory. This model allows increased surveillance in the territory, objectively and representatively detects problems arising from the use of medicines, and establishes improvement strategies of public health.

Detection and Prevention of Medication Errors by the Network of Sentinel Pharmacies in a Southern European Region.

A medication error (ME) is a drug-related problem that has been recognized as a common and serious threat to patient safety. The aim of this study was to detect and analyze ME reports occurring throughout the therapeutic process through the community's pharmacies in order to improve the efficacy and safety of medications and contribute to the prevention of future MEs. This was a three-year descriptive, observational, and prospective study to detect and analyze the different MEs reported by the Catalan sentinel pharmacies network (Catalan SePhaNet). In total, 1394 notifications of MEs were reported (an incidence rate of 737.34 cases/100,000 inhabitants). MEs were detected more frequently in primary care centers. Most of the MEs reported were caused by an incorrect, incomplete, illegible, or verbal medical prescription (41.3%). Of the global notifications detected, 71.9% did not reach the patient (categories A and B). The drugs most frequently implicated in the reported ME cases were beta-lactam antibiotics. In 6.0% of the cases, the ME caused injury to the patient (categories E and F). In 72.0% of the global notifications, a pharmacist's intervention avoided the ME. The importance of a community pharmacy and the role of a pharmacist were demonstrated in aspects related to patient and drug safety.

Variability in the performance of preventive services and in the degree of control of identified health problems: a primary care study protocol.

BACKGROUND: Preventive activities carried out in primary care have important variability that makes necessary to know which factors have an impact in order to establish future strategies for improvement. The present study has three objectives: 1) To describe the variability in the implementation of 7 preventive services (screening for smoking status, alcohol abuse, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, obesity, influenza and tetanus immunization) and to determine their related factors; 2) To describe the degree of control of 5 identified health problems (smoking, alcohol abuse, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and obesity); 3) To calculate intraclass correlation coefficients. DESIGN: Multi-centered cross-sectional study of a randomised sample of primary health care teams from 3 regions of Spain designed to analyse variability and related factors of 7 selected preventive services in years 2006 and 2007. At the end of 2008, we will perform a cross-sectional study of a cohort of patients attended in 2006 or 2007 to asses the degree of control of 5 identified health problems. All subjects older than 16 years assigned to a randomised sample of 22 computerized primary health care teams and attended during the study period are included in each region providing a sample with more than 850.000 subjects. The main outcome measures will be implementation of 7 preventive services and control of 5 identified health problems. Furthermore, there will be 3 levels of data collection: 1) Patient level (age, gender, morbidity, preventive services, attendance); 2) Health-care professional level (professional characteristics, years working at the team, workload); 3) Team level (characteristics, electronic clinical record system). Data will be transferred from electronic clinical records to a central database with prior encryption and dissociation of subject, professional and team identity. Global and regional analysis will be performed including standard analysis for primary health care teams and health-care professional level. Linear and logistic regression multilevel analysis adjusted for individual and cluster variables will also be performed. Variability in the number of preventive services implemented will be calculated with Poisson multilevel models. Team and health-care professional will be considered random effects. Intraclass correlation coefficients, standard error and variance components for the different outcome measures will be calculated.

Determinantes de la frecuentación en Atención Primaria en Cataluña / Primary Care frequentation determinants in Catalonia

OBJETIVO: Determinar qué variables definen el tiempo de asistencia anual medio por paciente en Atención Primaria (AP) en Cataluña, para mejorar la adecuación de la asignación presupuestaria. DISEÑO: Estudio ecológico transversal. Emplazamiento: Los Equipos de Atención Primaria (EAP) del Institut Català de la Salut (ICS) en 2016. PARTICIPANTES: Los 285 EAP del ICS, que dan cobertura a un 75% de los ciudadanos mayores de 14 años en Cataluña. Mediciones principales: Tiempo medio de visita anual en medicina familiar por paciente para cada EAP. Se estudió cómo este tiempo dependía de potenciales variables explicativas, a nivel de EAP, mediante modelos de regresión lineal. RESULTADOS: El tiempo medio de visita por paciente/año fue de 49 minutos, variando entre 23-87 minutos, según el EAP. Los EAP con población asignada de más edad, más comorbilidad, más atención domiciliaria, peor índice socioeconómico, mayor número de pensionistas jóvenes y mayor dispersión tuvieron más tiempo de visita, mientras que los EAP con más población y más mujeres tuvieron menos tiempo de visita. Estas variables explicaron un 64% de la variabilidad del tiempo de visita. CONCLUSIONES: La asignación presupuestaria en AP se puede basar en un modelo que incorpore las principales determinantes de la frecuentación de la población y se adecúe a las necesidades reales de ésta. Sería necesario profundizar en aquellos factores que dependen del profesional o de las organizaciones sanitarias para acabar de encontrar un modelo óptimo de asignación de recursos en la AP

AIM: To determine which variables determine the average annual attendance time per patient in Primary Care (PC) in Catalonia to improve the adequacy of the budget allocation. DESIGN: Cross-sectional ecological study. SETTING: The Primary Care health centers (EAP) from the Institut Català de la Salut (ICS) in 2016. PARTICIPANTS: The 285 EAPs from the ICS, which cover 75% of citizens over 14 years of age in Catalonia. MAIN MEASUREMENTS: Annual average time of visits by a family doctor per patient for each EAP. It was studied how this time depended on potential explanatory variables, at the EAP level, using linear regression models. RESULTS: the average visit time per patient/year was 49 minutes, varying between 23-87 minutes according to EAP. The EAPs with older population, more comorbidity, more home care, worse socioeconomic index, greater number of young pensioners and greater dispersion had more visiting time, while the EAPs with more population and more women expended less time to visit. These variables explained 64% of the visit time variability. CONCLUSIONS: The budget allocation in PC can be based on a model that incorporates the main determinants of patient' frequentation and adapts to their real needs. It would be necessary to deepen those factors that depend on the professional or health organizations to finish finding an optimal model of resource allocation in the PC

[Catalonia's primary healthcare accreditation model: a valid model]. / El modelo de acreditación de atención primaria de Catalunya: un modelo válido.

There are few experiences of accreditation models validated by primary care teams (EAP). The aim of this study was to detail the process of design, development, and subsequent validation of the consensus EAP accreditation model of Catalonia. An Operating Committee of the Health Department of Catalonia revised models proposed by the European Foundation for Quality Management, the Joint Commission International and the Institut Català de la Salut and proposed 628 essential standards to the technical group (25 experts in primary care and quality of care), to establish consensus standards. The consensus document was piloted in 30 EAP for the purpose of validating the contents, testing standards and identifying evidence. Finally, we did a survey to assess acceptance and validation of the document. The Technical Group agreed on a total of 414 essential standards. The pilot selected a total of 379. Mean compliance with the standards of the final document in the 30 EAP was 70.4%. The standards results were the worst fulfilment percentage. The survey target that 83% of the EAP found it useful and 78% found the content of the accreditation manual suitable as a tool to assess the quality of the EAP, and identify opportunities for improvement. On the downside they highlighted its complexity and laboriousness. We have a model that fits the reality of the EAP, and covers all relevant issues for the functioning of an excellent EAP. The model developed in Catalonia is a model for easy understanding.

El modelo de acreditación de atención primaria de Catalunya: un modelo válido / Catalonia's primary healthcare accreditation model: a valid model

Hay pocas experiencias de modelos de acreditación validados para equipos de atención primaria (EAP). El objetivo de este estudio fue detallar el proceso de diseño, elaboración, consenso y posterior validación del modelo de acreditación para equipos de atención primaria de Catalunya. Un Comité Operativo del Departament de Salut de Catalunya revisó modelos propuestos por la European Foundation for Quality Management, la Joint Commission International y el Institut Català de la Salut, y propuso 628 estándares a un grupo técnico de 25 expertos en atención primaria y calidad asistencial, para consensuar estándares esenciales para acreditar EAP. Con el documento consensuado se realizó una prueba piloto en 30 EAP, con el propósito de validar contenidos, probar los estándares e identificar evidencias. Finalmente se pasó una encuesta para valorar la aceptación y la validación del documento. El Grupo Técnico consensuó un total de 414 estándares esenciales. La prueba piloto seleccionó un total de 379. La media de cumplimiento de los estándares del documento definitivo en los 30 equipos fue del 70,4%. Los estándares con peor porcentaje de cumplimiento fueron los correspondientes a criterios de resultados. La encuesta realizada objetivó que el 83% de los equipos lo encontró útil y el 78% encontró adecuado el contenido del manual de acreditación como herramienta para evaluar la calidad de los EAP e identificar oportunidades de mejora. Como aspecto negativo destacó su complejidad y laboriosidad. Disponemos de un modelo que se ajusta a la realidad de los EAP, y contempla todos los aspectos relevantes para el funcionamiento de un equipo excelente. El modelo elaborado en Catalunya es un modelo de fácil comprensión (AU)

There are few experiences of accreditation models validated by primary care teams (EAP). The aim of this study was to detail the process of design, development, and subsequent validation of the consensus EAP accreditation model of Catalonia. An Operating Committee of the Health Department of Catalonia revised models proposed by the European Foundation for Quality Management, the Joint Commission International and the Institut Català de la Salut and proposed 628 essential standards to the technical group (25 experts in primary care and quality of care), to establish consensus standards. The consensus document was piloted in 30 EAP for the purpose of validating the contents, testing standards and identifying evidence. Finally, we did a survey to assess acceptance and validation of the document. The Technical Group agreed on a total of 414 essential standards. The pilot selected a total of 379. Mean compliance with the standards of the final document in the 30 EAP was 70.4%. The standards results were the worst fulfilment percentage. The survey target that 83% of the EAP found it useful and 78% found the content of the accreditation manual suitable as a tool to assess the quality of the EAP, and identify opportunities for improvement. On the downside they highlighted its complexity and laboriousness. We have a model that fits the reality of the EAP, and covers all relevant issues for the functioning of an excellent EAP. The model developed in Catalonia is a model for easy understanding (AU)