Social variation in reasons for contacting general practice out-of-hours: implications for daytime service provision?

BACKGROUND: Contact with general practice out-of-hours services increases with socioeconomic deprivation. The reasons for this association are unclear but may include variations in access to daytime services or differences in morbidity. AIM: To identify the reasons for contact with the Glasgow Emergency Medical Service (GEMS) in relation to patient sociodemographic characteristics and the nature of the presenting problem. METHOD: All contacts with GEMS over a one-week period (n = 3193) in October 1996 were identified and a random 1:2 sample were sent a postal questionnaire investigating their reasons for contacting the service. Sociodemographic data and presenting problems were extracted from the service contact sheet. Data were analysed using correspondence analysis. RESULTS: Correspondence analysis identified two factors characterised as 'perceived problems with daytime services' and 'perceived urgency'. Scores on the former dimension were significantly associated with age (P < 0.0001), gender (P < 0.0001), socioeconomic category (P < 0.0001), and presenting problem (P = 0.015) and scores were higher in adults, in males, among the non-affluent (particularly those resident in deprived areas), and in those presenting with a musculoskeletal problem. Scores on the latter dimension were significantly associated with age (P < 0.0001) and presenting problem (P < 0.0001). Scores tended to increase after childhood and for each of the five most frequent categories of presenting problem relative to other symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to those from affluent areas, patients from non-affluent areas appear to perceive difficulties accessing their general practitioner during surgery hours and may contact out-of-hours services as an alternative.     

"I don't know how many of these [medicines] are necessary.." - a focus group study among elderly users of multiple medicines

OBJECTIVE: The growing prevalence of multiple medicine use among elderly challenges health care. The aim was to conduct an exploratory study describing multiple medicine use from the elderly patient's perspective. METHODS: Twelve focus groups of 29 men and 30 women 65 years of age or older, using five or more medicines were analysed qualitatively. RESULTS: Initially the participants reported no problems with using multiple medicines; they felt fortunate that medicines existed and kept them alive. However, negative attitudes were also revealed, both similar to those presented in studies on lay experience of medicine-taking and some that appear more specific to users of multiple medicines. The foremost of these was that acceptance of medicines depends on not experiencing adverse effects and worrying whether multiple medicine use is 'good' for the body. Furthermore, participants' perception of their medicines depended on interaction with doctors, i.e. trusting 'good' doctors. CONCLUSION: The participants revealed co-existing accounts of both immediate gratitude and problems with using multiple medicines. Furthermore, the patient-doctor relationship coloured their attitudes towards their medicines. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Importance of the patient-doctor relationship for treatment success is highlighted. Moreover, to be able to capture both accounts of the elderly in this study an appropriate consultation length is needed.     

Patients'' views of a pharmacist-run medication review clinic in general practice.

BACKGROUND: Reviewing elderly patients' medication is a requirement of the National Service Framework for Older People. Many general practitioners have insufficient time to review patients' medications in a consultation. Pharmacist review has been offered as an alternative and this will be a new experience for many patients. AIM: To ascertain patients' views of a pharmacist-conducted medication review clinic, run in their general practice surgery. DESIGN OF STUDY: Qualitative study using focus group interviews. SETTING: General practices in Leeds Health Authority area. METHOD: Patients aged 65 years and over, who had attended a medicine review clinic, took part in focus groups that were recorded and transcribed. Units of information representing an idea were identified and similar ideas were grouped together as themes. RESULTS: Patients had a number of prior beliefs about the clinic. Most patients knew that the clinic's purpose was to review repeat medication, to find out more about their medicines, and to ask questions about efficacy and side effects. Some patients were suspicious about the purpose of the clinic but others welcomed the opportunity to have an in-depth review and an explanation of their condition and its treatment; some patients did not accept advice or were disappointed that their expectations were not fulfilled. Most patients were happy to attend a yearly review but some expressed guilt about attending the surgery too frequently. CONCLUSION: Patients who attended the medication review clinics expressed a range of views about the service. Further research into patients' and carers' opinions about medicine review is needed to inform the development of these services.     

Piloting the role of a pharmacist in a community palliative care multidisciplinary team: an Australian experience

Background

While the home is the most common setting for the provision of palliative care in Australia, a common problem encountered here is the inability of patient/carers to manage medications, which can lead to misadventure and hospitalisation. This can be averted through detection and resolution of drug related problems (DRPs) by a pharmacist; however, they are rarely included as members of the palliative care team. The aim of this study was to pilot a model of care that supports the role of a pharmacist in a community palliative care team. A component of the study was to develop a cost-effective model for continuing the inclusion of a pharmacist within a community palliative care service.

Methods

The study was undertaken (February March 2009-June 2010) in three phases. Development (Phase 1) involved a literature review; scoping the pharmacist's role; creating tools for recording DRPs and interventions, a communication and education strategy, a care pathway and evidence based patient information. These were then implemented in Phase 2. Evaluation (Phase 3) of the impact of the pharmacist's role from the perspectives of team members was undertaken using an online survey and focus group. Impact on clinical outcomes was determined by the number of patients screened to assess their risk of medication misadventure, as well as the number of medication reviews and interventions performed to resolve DRPs.

Results

The pharmacist screened most patients (88.4%, 373/422) referred to the palliative care service to assess their risk of medication misadventure, and undertook 52 home visits. Medication reviews were commonly conducted at the majority of home visits (88%, 46/52), and a variety of DRPs (113) were detected at this point, the most common being "patient requests drug information" (25%, 28/113) and "condition not adequately treated" (22%, 25/113). The pharmacist made 120 recommendations in relation to her interventions. Fifty percent of online survey respondents (10/20) had interacted 10 or more times with the pharmacist for advice. All felt that the pharmacist's role was helpful, improving their knowledge of the different medications used in palliative care. The six team members who participated in the focus group indicated that there were several benefits of the pharmacist's contributions towards medication screening and review.

Conclusions

The inclusion of a pharmacist in a community palliative care team lead to an increase in the medication-related knowledge and skills of its members, improved patients' medication management, and minimised related errors. The model of care created can potentially be duplicated by other palliative care services, although its cost-effectiveness was unable to be accurately tested within the study.     

Newly-developed drug information services provided by hospital pharmacists

Modern health care is supported by many health care professionals. Hospital pharmacists are required to accept increasing responsibilities for appropriate medication use, moving into more important roles within the health care system. Accurate drug information is indispensable for appropriate medication use, however, drug information is not always sufficiently utilized by physicians, and thus it is suggested that there is a need for providing individualized drug information (one to one advice to physicians). Hospital pharmacists must have access to patient-specific health care information and must monitor drug therapy directly in order to provide individualized drug information. Hospital pharmacists, with proper access to patient-specific health care information, can promote safer prescribing practices by advising both patients and physicians, and so can reduce patients' risk for medication-related problems and improve the quality of their health care. Optimal drug therapy is the goal for every patient. Together, using their respective knowledge bases, pharmacists and physicians could provide optimal drug therapy, benefiting both patients and the health care system.     

The nature of patients' requests for physicians' help

This report describes patients' requests for help in two outpatient settings--one, a general medicine practice (GMP); the other, a medical walk-in unit (WIU). Interview data were collected in 1981 from 200 patients prior to their visits with the doctor. Patients were asked, "How do you hope the doctor (or clinic) can be of help to you today?" Their responses were written down verbatim. A coding system was devised that described the specificity, focus, and form of each request in order to provide the clinician with a classification for recognizing these request elements and responding to them. Specificity (precision) was identified from the response to "What do you hope the doctor will do for you?" The focus (objective) was described by four categories: problem, treatment, relationship, and administration; the form (intervention), by five categories: somatic, cognitive, affective, advice, and instrumental. Patterns of requests differed in the two settings. In the WIU, the pattern of requests had a problem focus with a form split between the cognitive (wanting an explanation) and the somatic (wanting a medical procedure); in the GMP, treatment was the focus, with a somatic form. The overall results indicate the varied requests of medical outpatients that express their perspectives about their illnesses. This classification of requests should be useful to physicians in eliciting and responding to their patients' requests.     

An evaluation of the implementation of integrated community home-based care services in vhembe district, South Africa

Aim:

The aim of the study is to evaluate the implementation of integrated community home-based care (CHBC) services in Vhembe District, Limpopo Province, South Africa.

Materials and Methods:

In all, 393 caregivers responded to a questionnaire on various aspects of home-based care and service provider characteristics.

Results:

Results indicate that in most areas of the Community Homes-based Care (CHBC) services, caregivers had confidence including wound dressing, health education, bet bathing, giving prescribed medication, and management of diabetes client, and they had sufficient knowledge received through training. Lower knowledge and confidence was noted for the management of hypertensive and asthmatic clients, and lower knowledge (82%) was indicated for counseling. The most common caregiving services included health education (100%), giving medication (98%), management of hypertension (22%), and counseling (15%). Most caregivers rated the implementation of CHBC in their district as excellent or good (70%). The most common problems and barriers in caregiving included (1) structural problems: none or sometimes not available home-based care kits (54%), lack of resources (32%), lack of transport money (30%), and very low stipend (22%); (2) problems with the supervisor such as “lack of management skills” (40%) and “selfishness” (38%); and (3) problems with clients and community such as “patients not taking prescribed medicines regularly” (45%) and “not welcomed by patients and family members” (35%).

Conclusion:

Community home-based caregivers are largely able to implement home-based care services but would need more support (training, financial, career structure, and health system) to improve on their services.     

Quality Care for People with HIV/AIDS: Patients’ Perspectives

Abstract

Purpose: To explore patient preferences to aid in the development of quality measures to assess quality of health care for people living with human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency disease (HIV/AIDS). Method: This study involved three 2-hour focus groups with 29 people living with HIV/AIDS in Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco, California. Eighteen quality of care indicators for HIV/AIDS health care were presented to each group and quantitative rankings were obtained. Aggregated weightings were used to rank and prioritize the quality measures for further exploration. Results: Participants identified 38 themes relevant to high-quality care for HIV/AIDS. Patients ranked the following candidate measures most important: effective relationship with provider, prevention of opportunistic infections, involvement in care and treatment decisions, being offered antiretroviral treatment, and access to health care services. We observed attitudinal differences among focus group participants that corresponded to gender and race/ethnicity. Conclusion: Participants favored quality information that rated the experience of care and outcome measures including indicators of access to services, standard treatments, and competence of the providers. Patient perspectives can inform the development of quality measures that are meaningful to consumers and can assist in the design of services that meet patients’ demographic and socioeconomic needs.     

Out-of-hours palliative care: a qualitative study of cancer patients, carers and professionals

BACKGROUND: New out-of-hours healthcare services in the UK are intended to offer simple, convenient access and effective triage. They may be unsatisfactory for patients with complex needs, where continuity of care is important. AIM: To explore the experiences and perceptions of out-of-hours care of patients with advanced cancer, and with their informal and professional carers. DESIGN OF STUDY: Qualitative, community-based study using in-depth interviews, focus groups and telephone interviews. SETTING: Urban, semi-urban and rural communities in three areas of Scotland. METHOD: Interviews with 36 patients with advanced cancer who had recently used out-of-hours services, and/or their carers, with eight focus groups with patients and carers and 50 telephone interviews with the patient's GP and other key professionals. RESULTS: Patients and carers had difficulty deciding whether to call out-of-hours services, due to anxiety about the legitimacy of need, reluctance to bother the doctor, and perceptions of triage as blocking access to care and out-of-hours care as impersonal. Positive experiences related to effective planning, particularly transfer of information, and empathic responses from staff. Professionals expressed concern about delivering good palliative care within the constraints of a generic acute service, and problems accessing other health and social care services. CONCLUSIONS: Service configuration and access to care is based predominantly on acute illness situations and biomedical criteria. These do not take account of the complex needs associated with palliative and end-of-life care. Specific arrangements are needed to ensure that appropriately resourced and integrated out-of-hours care is made accessible to such patient groups.     

Developing a model of decision-making about complementary therapy use for patients with cancer: A qualitative study

ObjectiveTo improve our understanding of patient participation in health care consultations and decision-making by exploring a consultation that lies at the interface between mainstream care and complementary therapies.MethodsThirty-four holistic consultations were observed at centres offering complementary therapies for cancer, followed by interviews with patients and focus groups with professionals.ResultsA model of decision-making about complementary therapy use emerged from the data: ‘Advice: Assessor led decision’, ‘Confirmation: Joint decision’, ‘Access: Patient-led decision’ and ‘Informed: Patient-led decision’. Decision-making style was contingent on identifiable communication strategies in the preceding information-sharing and discussion phases of the consultation.ConclusionThis study confirms the importance of gauging patients’ preferences for level of participation in decision-making. Models of consultations are generally based on the assumption that a greater degree of patient participation is a good thing that access to information and decision-making power is sought by all patients. Data from this study suggest that, in this context at least, this is not necessarily the case. The study also stresses the dynamic nature of the consultation, in which roles are fluid rather than fixed.Practice implicationsInsight were gained into professionals’ communication strategies and patients’ role preferences in decision-making, which may be applicable more widely.     

Primary care support for tackling obesity: a qualitative study of the perceptions of obese patients

BACKGROUND: Obesity has become a major public health issue and there is concern about the response of health services to patients who are obese. The perceptions of obese patients using primary care services have not been studied in depth. AIM: To explore obese patients' experiences and perceptions of support in primary care. DESIGN OF STUDY: Qualitative study with semi-structured interviews conducted in participants' homes. SETTING: Five general practices contrasting in socioeconomic populations in Sheffield. METHOD: Purposive sampling and semi-structured interviewing of 28 patients with a diverse range of ages, backgrounds, levels of obesity and experiences of primary care services. RESULTS: Participants typically felt reluctance when presenting with concerns about weight and ambivalence about the services received. They also perceived there to be ambivalence and a lack of resources on the part of the health services. Participants showed a strong sense of personal responsibility about their condition and stigma-related cognitions were common. These contributed to their ambivalence about using services and their sensitivity to its features. Good relationships with primary care professionals and more intensive support partly ameliorated these effects. CONCLUSION: The challenges of improving access to and quality of primary care support in tackling obesity are made more complex by patients' ambivalence and other effects of the stigma associated with obesity.     

Patient adoption of an internet based diabetes medication tool to improve adherence: A pilot study

ObjectiveTo investigate the effect of a video intervention, Managing Your Diabetes Medicines, on patient self-efficacy, problems with using medication, and medication adherence in a rural, mostly African American population.MethodsPatients selected their problem areas in medication use and watched one of nine 2-min videos with a research assistant at a clinic or pharmacy and were given an access code to watch all the videos at their convenience. Outcomes were measured at baseline and 3-month follow-up.ResultsFifty-one patients were enrolled; 84% were African American and 80% were female (mean age: 54 years). Seventy-three percent watched at least one module after the initial visit. Improved self-efficacy was associated with a decrease in concerns about medications (r = −0.64). Low literate patients experienced greater improvement in self-efficacy than more literate patients (t = 2.54, p = 0.02). Patients’ mean number of problems declined from 6.14 to 5.03. The number of patients with high or medium adherence rose from 33% at baseline to 43% at 3-month follow-up.ConclusionsA practical, customized video intervention may help improve patient self-efficacy, reduce problems with medication use, and improve medication adherence in diabetes patients.Practice implicationsProviders should consider implementing technology-based interventions in the clinic to address common problems that patients have with self-management.