Patient factors largely explain variation in GP admission rates

There is an increasing emphasis on measurement of performance in the NHS. On p 94 Giuffrida et al examine one of the high level indicators proposed by the NHS executive as a measure of the quality of primary care: admission rates for asthma, diabetes, and epilepsy. The authors show that between a third and a half of the variation in these admission rates can be explained by socioeconomic characteristics, measures of population morbidity, and secondary care supplyall factors outside the control of general practitioners. In a separate study Reid et al also show that an important amount of variation in hospital admission rates between general practices can be explained by the underlying mortality and socioeconomic background of the practices' patients (p 98). The authors do not, however, discount the influence of the general practitioner on admission rates, and in particular their results suggest that more deprived patients experience inequality in access to elective hospital care.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

Measuring quality of care with routine data: avoiding confusion between performance indicators and health outcomes

Antonio Giuffrida, Hugh Gravelle, and Martin Roland
BMJ 1999 319: 94-98. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Explaining variation in hospital admission rates between general practices: cross sectional study

Fiona D A Reid, Derek G Cook, and Azeem Majeed
BMJ 1999 319: 98-103. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]