Organisation of primary care services outside normal working hours

Out-of-hours primary care. Implications of organisation on costs

BACKGROUND To perform out-of-hours primary care, Dutch general practitioners (GPs) have organised themselves in large-scale GP cooperatives. Roughly, two models of out-of-hours care can be distinguished; GP cooperatives working separate from the hospital emergency department (ED) and GP cooperatives integrated with the hospital ED. Research has shown differences in care utilisation between thes...

Redesigning after-hours primary care.

Estimation of Working Hours of Nursing Staff in Neonatal Intensive Care Units: A Work Sampling

Background: Human resources are considered the most valuable capital of every healthcare system, and the quality of care is closely related to the quantity and skill of this group. Therefore, the proper estimation of the required nursing staff in different wards can help improve the quality of nursing care. The purpose of this study was to determine the hours of provided care by nursing staff i...

Does setting up out of hours primary care cooperatives outside a hospital reduce demand for emergency care?

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether the reorganisation of out of hours primary care, from practice rotas to GP cooperatives, changed utilisation of primary and hospital emergency care. METHODS During a four week period before and a four week period after the reorganisation of out of hours primary care in a region in the south of the Netherlands all patient contacts with general practitioners and...

Primary care Primary care in the United States Organisation of primary care in the United States

The replacement of health authorities by primary care trusts in 2002 marked the beginning of a new chapter in the evolution of primary care in Britain’s national health service. The explanations for these reforms include trying to improve the quality and accessibility of health services in the United Kingdom. How these objectives will be achieved has been intensely debated and, aside from the i...