The Role of Chief Medical officers in making Public Health Overview Documents in Norwegian Municipalities. A qualitative Study.

AIMS: To investigate how Chief Medical Officers experience their role in the municipalities´ work with making the public health overview documents, demanded by the Norwegian Public Health Act from 2012. METHODS: A qualitative study with semi-structured focus group interviews with 21 Chief Medical Officers from 20 different municipalities in Norway. The interviews were conducted in 2017. The data were analyzed thematically. RESULTS: The Chief Medical Officers were mainly positive to participating in making public health overview documents. They took on roles as leaders of the work, medical advisors, data collectors towards local GPs and listening post to other sectors. Organizational factors like too small positions and a lack of tradition to involve the CMO in public health work were experienced as barriers to their involvement. The collaboration with the public health coordinators was said to be rewarding, and the intersectoral process involved employees from other sectors in a new way in public health. Although there were some positive experiences, several CMOs considered the use and impact of the public health overview document as limited. CONCLUSION: There was a large variation in the amount and the type of involvement the Chief Medical Officers had in making the public health overview documents in Norwegian municipalities. More research is needed to understand if this has any consequences for the quality of public health work in the municipalities and whether it is a sign of a changing role of the Chief Medical Officers.

Identifying individuals with complex and long-term health-care needs using the Johns Hopkins Adjusted Clinical Groups System: A comparison of data from primary and specialist health care.

AIMS: This study aimed to present the Johns Hopkins Adjusted Clinical Groups (ACG) System risk stratification profile of a total adult population of somatic health-care users when using data from either general practitioners (GPs) or hospital services and to compare the number and characteristics of individuals identified as having complex and long-term health-care needs in each data source. METHODS: This was a registry-based study that included all adult residents (N=168,285) in four municipalities in Central Norway who received somatic health care during 2013. Risk profiles were generated using the ACG System based on age, sex and diagnoses registered by GPs or the local hospital. ACG output variables on number of chronic conditions, frailty and concurrent resource utilisation were chosen as indicators of complexity. RESULTS: Nearly nine out of 10 (83.9%) of the population had been in contact with a GP, and 35.4% with the hospital. The mean number of diagnoses (3.0) was equal in both sources. A larger proportion of the population had higher risk scores in all variables except frailty when comparing hospital data to GP data. This was also found when comparing individuals identified as having complex and long-term health-care needs. A similar proportion of the population was found to have complex and long-term health-care needs (hospital 6.7%, GP 6.3%), but only one in five (21.5%) were identified in both data sets. CONCLUSIONS: As data from GPs and hospitals identified mostly different individuals with complex and long-term health-care needs, combining data sources is likely to be the best option for identifying those most in need of special attention.

Views on patient portal use for adolescents in mental health care - a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Digitalization of health care has opened up for new ways to involve and engage patients. With this, increased attention has been put on digital patient portals. There exists some research on patient portals for adolescent patients in general and for adults in mental health care. However, no studies on patient portals for adolescents in mental health care have been identified in a recent review. The aim was therefore to explore the views on using patient portals for adolescents in mental health care among persons involved in and/or being affected by the introduction of a patient portal. METHODS: A qualitative study was conducted using individual semi-structured interviews with 14 persons who were healthcare providers in child and adolescent mental health care, young representatives from the user panel, or persons affiliated with an EHR-project introducing a patient portal. The main questions addressed their views on introducing patient portals for adolescents in mental health care and how patient portals and access to clinical notes can affect them and their treatment. RESULTS: The findings were categorised into four main themes; "Does access to a patient portal help or harm adolescents?", "Who decides access?", "Mostly a political goal" and "Need for support and competency". Informants mentioned situations in which both adolescents' and parents' access to a patient portal could help adolescents in mental health care, but also where it could potentially harm their treatment and threaten confidentiality. Most informants thought that healthcare providers should have the autonomy to determine which information should be shared with whom, but also requested guidelines to ensure equal practice and support in difficult situations. Some perceived patient portals as the result of a political decision, rather than healthcare providers´ wishes, while others described it as a necessary development towards democratization. CONCLUSION: The informants' views varied from thinking that a patient portal could support adolescents in mental health care, to worrying that it could be detrimental to the treatment. Informants emphasized that the management should facilitate training and support for healthcare providers in using patient portals and telehealth.

Interest in using patient portals among adolescents in mental health care - a cross-sectional study.

INTRODUCTION: Adolescents in mental health care may benefit from using patient portals to access personalised information about their health and treatment. While no studies have considered the interest in using patient portals among adolescents in mental health care, factors such as patient activation, self-reported health, depressive symptoms, diagnosis, healthcare utilisation, and eHealth literacy have been found to be associated with interest in and use of patient portals in other patient groups. Therefore, the aim was to explore the associations between interest in using patient portals and patient activation, self-reported health, depressive symptoms, diagnosis, healthcare utilisation and eHealth literacy among adolescents in specialist mental health care. METHODS: A cross-sectional study among adolescents between 12 and 18 years of age receiving or having received treatment at four different specialist child and adolescent mental healthcare services across Norway. The adolescents´ answers to the questionnaire were linked to data on their healthcare utilisation and ICD-10 diagnoses from the Norwegian Patient Registry. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and bivariate tests. RESULTS: The 53 adolescents who participated, had a mean age of 15 years and 68% of them identified as female. Two out of three (64%) were interested in using patient portals. Most of the factors were not associated with interest in using patient portals. However, adolescents with mental and behavioural disorders (F diagnoses, 75% interested) were more interested in using patient portals compared to those with symptoms and signs involving cognition, perception, emotional state, and behaviour (R diagnoses, 31% interested). CONCLUSION: Except for mental health diagnosis, this study did not identify any specific factors likely to impact patient portal interest among adolescents in specialist mental health care.

Labour market participation after spinal cord injury. A register-based cohort study.

STUDY DESIGN: A register based cohort study. OBJECTIVES: To investigate labour market participation following spinal cord injury (SCI) and to describe the impact of personal and SCI characteristics. SETTING: Norway. METHODS: Persons registered with SCI in the Norwegian SCI registry 2011-2017, and matched reference individuals without SCI from the general population (named controls) were followed for up to six years after injury using national registry data on employment, education, income, and social security benefits. Main measures of labour market participation were: (1) Receiving any amount of pay for work, and (2) Receiving sickness and disability benefits. RESULTS: Among the 451 persons with SCI (aged 16-66 years and working before injury), the estimated percentages receiving pay for work and sickness and disability benefits in the sixth years after injury were 63% (95% CI 57-69) and 67% (95% CI 61-72). Corresponding percentages for the controls (n = 1791) were 91% (95% CI 90-93) for receiving pay for work and 13% (95% CI 12-15) for receiving sickness and disability benefits. Among persons with SCI, less severe neurological outcome, higher level of education, younger age at injury, and a stronger pre-injury attachment to employment (higher employment income, having an employer, less receipt of benefits), were associated with higher labour market participation. CONCLUSION: SCI substantially decreased labour market participation up to six years after injury compared to matched controls. Even if a relatively large proportion of persons with SCI remained in some degree of work activity, more than half did so in combination with receiving benefits.

Developing a virtual reality (VR) application for practicing the ABCDE approach for systematic clinical observation.

BACKGROUND: The Airways, Breathing, Circulation, Disability, Exposure (ABCDE) approach is an international approach for systematic clinical observation. It is an essential clinical skill for medical and healthcare professionals and should be practiced repeatedly. One way to do so is by using virtual reality (VR). The aim was therefore to develop a VR application to be used by inexperienced health students and professionals for self-instructed practice of systematic clinical observation using the ABCDE approach. METHODS: An iterative human-centred approach done in three overlapping phases; deciding on the ABCDE approach, specifying the requirements, and developing the application. RESULTS: A total of 138 persons were involved. Eight clinical observations were included in the ABCDE approach. The requirements included making it possible for inexperienced users to do self-instructed practice, a high level of immersion, and a sense of presence including mirroring the physical activities needed to do the ABCDE approach, allowing for both single and multiplayer, and automatic feedback with encouragement to repeat the training. In addition to many refinements, the testing led to the development of some new solutions. Prominent among them was to get players to understand how to use the VR hand controllers and start to interact with the VR environment and more instructions like showing videos on how to do observations. The solutions in the developed version were categorised into 15 core features like onboarding, instructions, quiz, and feedback. CONCLUSION: A virtual reality application for self-instructed practice of systematic clinical observation using the ABCDE approach can be developed with sufficient testing by inexperienced health students and professionals.

The effect of using desktop VR to practice preoperative handovers with the ISBAR approach: a randomized controlled trial.

AIM: The aim was to investigate whether second-year undergraduate nursing students practicing the Identification-Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation (ISBAR) communication approach in a desktop virtual reality (VR) application had a non-inferior learning outcome compared with the traditional paper-based method when sorting patient information correctly based on the ISBAR structure. METHODS: A non-inferior parallel group assessor blinded randomized controlled trial, conducted in simulation sessions as part of preparation for clinical placements in March and April 2022. After a 20-minute introductory session, the participants were randomized to self-practice the ISBAR approach for 45 minutes in groups of three in either an interactive desktop VR application (intervention) or traditional paper-based (TP) simulation. The primary outcome concerned the proportion of nursing students who sorted all 11 statements of patient information in the correct ISBAR order within a time limit of 5 min. The predefined, one-sided, non-inferiority limit was 13 percentage points in favor of traditional paper-based simulation. RESULTS: Of 210 eligible students, 175 (83%) participated and were allocated randomly to the VR (N = 87) or TP (N = 88) group. Practicing in the desktop VR application (36% of everything correct) was non-inferior to the traditional paper-based method (22% everything correct), with a difference of 14.2 percentage points (95% CI 0.7 to 27.1) in favor of VR. The VR group repeated the simulation 0.6 times more (95% CI 0.5 to 0.7). Twenty percent more (95% CI 6.9 to 31.6) of the students in the VR group reported liked how they practiced. All the other outcomes including the System Usability Scale indicated non-inferiority or were in favor of VR. CONCLUSIONS: Self-practicing with the ISBAR approach in desktop VR was non-inferior to the traditional paper-based method and gave a superior learning outcome. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN62680352 registered 30/05/2023.

The short-term effect of a modified comprehensive geriatric assessment and regularly case conferencing on neuropsychiatric symptoms in nursing homes: a cluster randomized trial.

AIMS: To investigate the short-term effect of implementing a modified comprehensive geriatric assessment and regularly case conferencing in nursing homes on neuropsychiatric symptoms. BACKGROUND: Neuropsychiatric symptoms are common and may persist over time in nursing home residents. Evidence of effective interventions is scarce. DESIGN: A parallel cluster-randomised controlled trial. METHODS: The intervention was monthly standardised case conferencing in combination with a modified comprehensive geriatric assessment. The control group received care as usual. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The total score on the short version of the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI-Q, 12-items). RESULTS: A total of 309 residents at 34 long-term care wards in 17 nursing homes (unit of randomisation) were included. The intervention care units conducted on average two case conference-meetings (range 1-3), discussing a mean of 4.8 (range 1-8) residents. After 3 months, there were no difference of NPI-Q total score between the intervention (-0.4) and the control group (0.5) (estimated mean difference = -1.0, 95% CI -2.4 to 0.5, p = 0.19). There was a difference in favour of the intervention group on one of the secondary outcome measures, the apathy symptoms (-0.5 95% CI: -0.9 to -0.1, p = 0.03). CONCLUSION: In this study there were no short-term effect of case conferencing and modified comprehensive geriatric assessments after three months on the total score on neuropsychiatric symptoms. The intervention group had less apathy at 3 months follow-up compared to those receiving care as usual. The findings suggest that a more comprehensive intervention is needed to improve the total Neuropsychiatric symptoms burden and complex symptoms. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Due to delays in the organisation, the study was registered after study start, i.e. retrospectively in Clinicaltrials.gov # NCT02790372 at  https://clinicaltrials.gov/ ; Date of clinical trial registration: 03/06/2016.

Relevant vs non-relevant subspecialist for patients hospitalised in internal medicine at a local hospital: which is better? A retrospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Studies of the treatment of patients in-hospital with a specific diagnosis show that physicians with a subspecialisation relevant to this diagnosis can provide a better quality of care. However, studies including patients with a range of diagnoses show a more negligible effect of being attended by a relevant subspecialist. This project aimed to study a more extensive set of patients and diagnoses in an environment where the subspecialist present could be controlled. Thus, this study investigated whether being attended by a physician with a subspeciality relevant to the patient's primary diagnosis was prospectively associated with readmission, in-hospital mortality, or length of stay compared to a physician with a subspeciality not relevant to the patient's primary diagnosis. METHODS: We have conducted a retrospective register-based study of 11,059 hospital admissions across 9 years at a local hospital in south-eastern Norway, where it was possible to identify the physician attending the patients at the beginning of the stay. The outcomes studied were emergency readmissions to the same ward within 30 days, any in-hospital mortality and the total length of stay. The patients admitted were matched with the consultant(s) responsible for their treatment. Then, the admissions were divided into two groups according to their primary diagnosis. Was their diagnosis within the subspeciality of the attending consultant (relevant subspecialist) or not (non-relevant subspecialist). The two groups were then compared using bivariable and multivariable models adjusted for patient characteristics, comorbidities, diagnostic group and physician sex. RESULTS: A relevant subspecialist was present during the first 3 days in 8058 (73%) of the 11,059 patient cases. Patients attended to by a relevant subspecialist had an odds ratio (OR) of 0.91 (95% confidence interval 0.76 to 1.09) for being readmitted and 0.71 (0.48 to 1.04) for dying in the hospital and had a length of stay that was 0.18 (- 0.07 to 0.42) days longer than for those attended to by a non-relevant subspecialist. CONCLUSIONS: This study found that patients attended by a relevant subspecialist did not have a significantly different outcome to those attended by a non-relevant subspecialist.

General practitioners' experiences of being involved in local public health work in Norway. A qualitative study.

AIM: The aim was to explore how general practitioners experienced being involved in local public health work and how they worked with prevention and health promotion clinically after the introduction of the Public Health Act in 2012. DESIGN, SETTING AND SUBJECTS: Qualitative study with focus groups interviews with 18 GPs from different municipalities in Norway. RESULTS: The GPs said that they either had not at all or only to a limited extent been involved in local public health work in their municipalities. They reported finding it hard to prioritize individual disease prevention and health promotion in their clinical work. GPs thought of health promotion as something that mainly concerned healthy people at a group level. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the experiences of the GPs in this study, there is a gap between governmental expectations to the role of GPs in public health, and how it works in practice.KEY POINTSWith the Norwegian Public Health Act launched in 2012, GPs were expected to contribute to better population health in their clinical work and as data providers to local public health surveillance.The GPs interviewed in this study said they had not been involved in local public health work, and they found it hard to give disease prevention and health promotion priority in their clinical work.GPs expressed various perceptions of what prevention and health promotion entails.

The effect of self-practicing systematic clinical observations in a multiplayer, immersive, interactive virtual reality application versus physical equipment: a randomized controlled trial.

This study aimed to investigate whether group self-practice of systematic clinical observation using the airway, breathing, circulation, disability and exposure (ABCDE) approach in a multiplayer, immersive, interactive virtual reality (VR) application provided a non-inferior learning outcome compared to practicing with physical equipment in first-year medical and nursing students. The study was a non-inferior, parallel-group randomized controlled trial. After a 15-min introduction session on the ABCDE approach, all students were randomly allocated to practice ABCDE in groups of three for 20 min either in a fully immersive, interactive, multiplayer virtual reality application (the VR group) or with physical equipment (the TP group). The primary outcome was the number of students who documented all predefined observations in the correct order of the ABCDE approach on a practical test performed immediately after group practice. A total of 84% of all eligible students participated, with 146 students in the VR group and 143 in the TP group. On the primary outcome, 20% in the VR group and 21% in the TP group got everything correct (absolute difference 1% point, one-sided 95% confidence interval 1.0-8.8% points), showing non-inferiority of the virtual reality application. For other outcomes, the results were mostly similar between the groups. Group self-practice of the ABCDE approach in multiplayer, immersive, interactive virtual reality application was non-inferior to practice with physical equipment.

Participants' views and experiences from setting up a shared patient portal for primary and specialist health services- a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Recently, there has been an increasing focus among healthcare organisations on implementing patient portals. Previous studies have mainly focussed on the experiences of patient portal use. Few have investigated the processes of deciding what content and features to make available, in particular for shared portals across healthcare domains. The aim of the study was to investigate views on content and experiences from the configuration process among participants involved in setting up a shared patient portal for primary and specialist health services. METHODS: A qualitative study including 15 semi-structured interviews with persons participating in patient portal configuration was conducted from October 2019 to June 2020. RESULTS: Whether a shared patient portal for all the health services in the region should be established was not questioned by any of the informants. It was experienced as a good thing to have numerous participants present in the discussions on configuration, but it also was said to increase the complexity of the work. The informants considered a patient portal to be of great value for patient care, among other things because it would lead to improvements in patient follow-up and increased patient empowerment. Nevertheless, some informants advocated caution as they thought the patient portal possibly could lead to an increase in healthcare providers' workloads and to anxiety and worries, as well as to inequality in access to health care among patients. The findings were categorized into the themes 'A tool for increased patient involvement', 'Which information should be available for the patient', 'Concerns about increased workload', 'Too complex to use versus not interesting enough', 'Involving all services' and 'Patient involvement'. CONCLUSIONS: Establishing a shared patient portal for primary and specialist health services was considered unproblematic. There was, however, variation in opinions on which content and features to include. This variation was related to concerns about increasing the workload for health care providers, causing anxiety and inequality among patients, and ensuring that the solution would be interesting enough to adopt.

Evidence of validity for the Norwegian version of the interprofessional collaborative competency attainment survey (ICCAS).

This was a validation study of the Norwegian version of The Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Survey (ICCAS). ICCAS consists of 20 retrospective pre- and post-questions, where respondents rate their agreement with regard to self-assessed competencies after participating in interprofessional education courses. It has been validated across various settings. The questionnaire was translated using the back-translation technique. We investigated evidence of validity regarding content, response process, and internal structure. Data were obtained from health and social care students (n = 1440, response rate 42.8%) participating in 12 different interprofessional courses in seven education institutions in Norway using a cross-sectional design. Exploratory factor analysis indicated one retracted factor for pre-scores and one retracted factor for post-scores. High McDonald's omega values indicated good internal consistency. Item deletion did not improve the scale's overall consistency on pre- or post-scores. We observed higher mean post-scores than pre-scores with moderate-to-large effect sizes, indicating a positive change in self-assessed interprofessional capabilities after training. Our findings indicate that the Norwegian version of ICCAS is a valid tool that may be implemented across a wide range of interprofessional education courses. Finally, our findings support earlier recommendations that ICCAS should be analyzed at an overall level to address change in interprofessional capabilities.

Is individual practice in an immersive and interactive virtual reality application non-inferior to practicing with traditional equipment in learning systematic clinical observation? A randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: The aim was to investigate if individual self-practice of the ABCDE approach (Airways, Breathing, Circulation, Disability, Exposure) in an immersive and interactive virtual reality (VR) application gave non-inferior learning outcome compared to using traditional equipment (TP) in first year medical and nursing students. METHODS: A non-inferior parallel group randomized controlled trial. The study was linked to a regular teaching program conducted in August and September 2019. All students participated in a 15-min ABCDE introduction session, before they self-practiced the ABCDE approach for 20 min in either a fully immersive and interactive VR application using hand controllers with some haptic feedback (Individual VR) or with blood pressure gauge, ear-thermometer and oximeter (Individual TP). The primary outcome was the number of students who documented all the eight predefined observations in the ABCDE approach in the correct order in a practical test on an advanced simulator manikin with a time limit of 5 min, done immediately after the self-practice. The predefined one-sided non-inferiority limit was 13% points. RESULTS: Of all eligible students, 84% participated in the study and randomly allocated to VR (n = 149) or TP (n = 140). The primary outcome showed non-inferiority of the VR application with 24.8% in individual VR doing all observations in correct order compared to 27.1% TP (absolute difference 2.3% points, one sided 95% CI 2.3 to 10.8). The secondary outcomes were similar between the groups, but more students in VR reported liking the way they practiced (absolute difference 46% points, 95% CI 36.5 to 56.6) and that it was a good way to learn (36.9% points, 95% CI 26.8 to 47). VR also scored high on the System Usability Scale (mean difference 6.4% points, 95% CI 2.8-10.1). CONCLUSIONS: Individual self-practicing the ABCDE approach in VR was non-inferior to individual self-practicing with traditional equipment.

Usability testing of EirV3-a computer-based tool for patient-reported outcome measures in cancer.

PURPOSE: Eir version 3 (V3) is an electronic tool for administration of patient-reported outcome measures (Eir-Patient) that immediately presents patient scores on the physician's computer (Eir-Doctor). Perceived usability is an important determinant for successful implementation. The aim of this study was to answer the following research question evaluated at the cancer outpatient clinics, in the patients' home, and at general practitioners' (GPs) offices: What are the number, type, and severity of usability issues evaluated by the patient (Eir-Patient module) and by the physician (Eir-Doctor module)? METHODS: A usability evaluation using observations, think-aloud sessions, individual interviews and focus group interviews in cancer patients and their physicians was conducted. Identified usability issues were graded on a severity scale from 1 (irritant) to 4 (unusable). RESULTS: Overall, 73 Eir registrations were performed by 37 patients, and used by 17 physicians in clinical consultations. All patients were able to complete the Eir-Patient symptom registration. Seventy-two usability issues were identified. None of them were graded as unusable. For the Eir-Patient module, 62% of the identified usability issues was graded as irritant (grade 1), 18% as moderate (grade 2), and 20% as severe (grade 3). For the Eir-Doctor module, 46% of the identified usability issues were graded as irritant, 36% as moderate and 18% as severe. CONCLUSIONS: In the updated Eir version, issues in the severe and moderate categories have been changed, to optimize the usability of using real-time PROMs in clinical practice.

'A lifebuoy' and 'a waste of time': patients' varying experiences of multidisciplinary pain centre treatment- a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: The recognition of chronic pain as a biopsychosocial phenomenon has led to the establishment of multidisciplinary pain treatment facilities, such as pain centres. Previous studies have focussed on inpatient, group-based or time-limited multidisciplinary pain programmes. The aim was to investigate variation in patients' experiences of attending individual outpatient multidisciplinary treatment at pain centres in Norway. METHODS: This was a qualitative study using semi-structured individual interviews with 19 informants. The informants were recruited among persons who after referral by their general practitioners 12 months prior had attended multidisciplinary pain treatment at a pain centre. The data were analysed thematically using systematic text condensation. RESULTS: The informants had received different treatments at the pain centres. Some had undergone only one multidisciplinary assessment in which a physician, a psychologist and a physiotherapist had been present, whereas others had initially been to a multidisciplinary assessment and then continued treatment by one or more of the professionals at the centre. Their experiences ranged from the pain centre as being described as a lifebuoy by some informants who had attended treatment over time, to being described as a waste of time by others who had only attended one or two multidisciplinary sessions. Prominent experiences included being met with understanding and a perception of receiving the best possible treatment, but also included disappointment over not being offered any treatment and perceiving the multidisciplinary approach as unnecessary. CONCLUSIONS: There were large variations in the informants' experiences in the pain centres. The findings indicate that the pain centres' multidisciplinary approach can represent a new approach to living with chronic pain but may also not provide anything new. Efforts should be devoted to ensuring that the pain centres' multidisciplinary treatment approach is aligned with their patients' actual needs.

Translation and cultural adaptation of the Communication Assessment Tool (CAT), developing a Danish and Norwegian version.

OBJECTIVE: To translate and cultural adapt the 14-item Communication Assessment Tool (CAT) into Norwegian and Danish, making them as similar as possible. DESIGN: This was a translation and validation study including individual interviews for content and face validity and a patient survey for internal consistency and floor-ceiling effect. SETTING: Outpatient clinic at the Department of Internal Medicine, Lillebaelt Hospital, Denmark and a Norwegian general practice. PARTICIPANTS: Ten patients were included for individual interviews and 440 participants completed the survey. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Translation and validation of the CAT. RESULTS: Despite minor differences in the use of words in the translated versions of CAT, the final versions were very similar. Based on the content and face validation and after agreement with the developers, it was decided to include a 'non-applicable' answering option, not a part of the original version. The use of 'non-applicable' for each item ranged from 0% to 30% in Norway and from 0% to 6.1% in Denmark. The overall CAT score, i.e. items rated excellent, were 55.5% in Norway and 50.3% in Denmark. For each item, the CAT score ranged between 31.3% and 69.8% in Norway and 33.7% and 57.4% in Denmark. CONCLUSION: The translated and validated CAT can be used to measure patients' perspectives on clinicians' communication skills in Denmark and Norway.

Contact with primary health care physicians before an acute hospitalisation.

Objectives: To assess contacts with general practitioners (GPs), both regular GPs and out-of-hours GP services (OOH) during the year before an emergency hospital admission. Design: Longitudinal design with register-based information on somatic health care contacts and use of municipality health care services. Setting: Four municipalities in central Norway, 2012-2013. Subjects: Inhabitants aged 50 and older admitted to hospital for acute myocardial infarction, hip fracture, stroke, heart failure, or pneumonia. Main outcome measures: GP contact during the year and month before an emergency hospital admission. Results: Among 66,952 identified participants, 720 were admitted to hospital for acute myocardial infarction, 645 for hip fracture, 740 for stroke, 399 for heart failure, and 853 for pneumonia in the two-year study period. The majority of these acutely admitted patients had contact with general practitioners each month before the emergency hospital admission, especially contacts with a regular GP. A general increase in GP contact was observed towards the time of hospital admission, but development differed between the patient groups. Patients admitted with heart failure had the steepest increase of monthly GP contact. A sizable percentage did not contact the regular GP or OOH services the last month before admission, in particular men aged 50-64 admitted with myocardial infarction or stroke. Conclusion: The majority of patients acutely admitted to hospital for different common severe emergency diagnoses have been in contact with GPs during the month and year before the admission. This points towards general practitioners having an important role in these patients' health care. KEY MESSAGES There is scarce knowledge about primary health care contact before an emergency hospital admission. The percentage of patients with contacts differed between patient groups, and increased towards hospital admission for most diagnoses, particularly heart failure. More than 50% having monthly general practitioner contact before admission underscores the general practitioners' role in these patients' health care. Our results underscore the need to consider medical diagnosis when talking about the role of general practitioners in preventing emergency hospital admissions.

Health care utilization and cost after discharge from a mental health hospital; an RCT comparing community residential aftercare and treatment as usual.

BACKGROUND: Community residential aftercare (step-down) services can ease the transition after a mental health hospital stay for patients with severe mental illness (SMI). AIMS: To investigate use of community and specialised mental health care services and costs in patients with SMI the first 12 months after discharge from a mental health hospital (MHH), comparing community residential aftercare (CRA) and treatment as usual. METHODS: An open parallel group randomised controlled trial with 41 participants. Data on use of specialist services (hospital, ambulant treatment and outpatient treatment) and community services (residential stays, home help, home care nursing, mental health consultation) were collected from specialist and community registers and health records. RESULTS: For the primary outcome, utilisation of community mental health services, the intervention group used, on average, 29% fewer hours (mean differences - 21.6 h, 95% CI -93.1 to 44.9, p = .096) with a cost saving of 29% (mean differences - 1845 EUR, 95% CI -8267 to 4171, p = .102), but the estimates were imprecise. For the secondary outcome, the study groups had the same total number of inpatient days (66 days), but the intervention group had on average of 13.4 fewer inpatient days in the mental health hospital (95% CI -29.9 to 0.9. p = .008). The number of inpatient admissions (mean difference - 0.9 admissions, 95% CI -3.5 to 1.5, p = .224) and readmissions (- 0.8, 95% CI -2.5 to 0.9. p = .440) was lower in the intervention group. The intervention group had on average a total cost saving of 38.5% (mean differences - 23,071 EUR, 95% CI -45,450 to 3027. p = .057). A post hoc multivariable regression analysis controlling for baseline characteristics gave a reduction in total cost in favour of the intervention group of - 19,781 EUR (95% CI -44,072 to 4509, p=,107). CONCLUSION: In this study, it was not possible to draw a definite conclusion about the effect, due to the small sample and imprecision of the estimates. The direction of the results and size of the point estimate, in addition to findings in other studies, indicates that transferring patients ready for discharge from mental hospital to community residential aftercare can have the potential to reduce total consumption of health services and costs without increased hospital admissions. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Registered in clinicaltrials.gov ( NCT01719354 ).

Twelve-month effect of chronic pain self-management intervention delivered in an easily accessible primary healthcare service - a randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the effects after twelve months related to patient activation and a range of secondary outcomes on persons with chronic pain of a chronic pain self-management course compared to a low-impact outdoor physical activity, delivered in an easily accessible healthcare service in public primary care. METHODS: An open, pragmatic, parallel group randomised controlled trial was conducted. The intervention group was offered a group-based chronic pain self-management course with 2.5-h weekly sessions for a period of six weeks comprising education that included cognitive and behavioural strategies for pain management, movement exercises, group discussions and sharing of experiences among participants. The control group was offered a drop-in, low-impact, outdoor physical activity in groups in one-hour weekly sessions that included walking and simple strength exercises for a period of six weeks. The primary outcome was patient activation assessed using the Patient Activation Measure (PAM-13). Secondary outcomes included assessments of pain, anxiety and depression, pain self-efficacy, sense of coherence, health-related quality of life, well-being and the 30-s Chair to Stand Test. Analyses were performed using a linear mixed model. RESULTS: After twelve months, there were no statistically significant differences between the intervention group (n = 60) and the control group (n = 61) for the primary or the secondary outcomes. The estimated mean difference between the groups for the primary outcome PAM was 4.0 (CI 95% -0.6 to 8.6, p = 0.085). Within both of the groups, there were statistically significant improvements in pain experienced during the previous week, the global self-rated health measure and the 30-s Chair to Stand Test. CONCLUSIONS: No long-term effect of the chronic pain self-management course was found in comparison with a low-impact physical activity intervention for the primary outcome patient activation or for any secondary outcome. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02531282 . Registered on August 212,015.