Health care experts, policy makers, and patient advocacy groups have identified fragmentation of care as a major flaw in the current health care system—a flaw that has a negative effect on quality, patient outcomes, and health care costs. 1-4 A primary objective of the recently enacted Accountable Care Act (ACA) is improving care coordination.5 Two models encouraged by the ACA—patient-centered ...

Some family medicine educators are arguing to eliminate pregnancy care as a required component of family medicine training since the majority of family physicians no longer perform deliveries, and many programs are having increasing difficulties in meeting this training requirement. The primary benefit of pregnancy care training is not to produce family physicians who all perform deliveries but...

background: diabetes is a leading cause of cardiovascular disease (cvd). moreover, cvd accounts for primary cause of death among diabetic patients. physicians, especially in the primary care setting, have effective role in the management of cardiovascular risk factors. therefore, we aimed to compare the prevalence of modifiable cardiovascular risk factors in type 2 diabetic patients attending t...

BACKGROUND Consumer directed health care proposes that patients will engage as informed consumers of health care services by sharing in more of their medical costs, often through deductibles. We examined knowledge of deductible plan details among new enrollees, as well as anticipated care-seeking changes in response to the deductible. METHODS In a large integrated delivery system with a range...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to characterize the proximity of primary care and behavioral health service delivery sites in the United States and factors influencing their colocation. METHODS We geocoded the practice addresses of primary care and behavioral health providers found in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' National Plan and Provider Enumeration System Downloadabl...

BACKGROUND Primary health care in industrialized countries faces major challenges due to demographic changes, an increasing prevalence of chronic diseases and a shortage of primary care physicians. One approach to counteract these developments might be to reduce primary care physicians' workload supported by the use of health information technology (HIT) and non-physician practice staff. In 200...

BACKGROUND We describe the rationale, methods, and important lessons learned from doing a practice content study in a new practice-based research network (PBRN). METHODS We performed a modified replication of the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) in the Kentucky Ambulatory Network (KAN). Network clinicians had input into focused modifications of the NAMCS protocol, including add...

www.aafp.org/afp Volume 89, Number 7 ◆ April 1, 2014 The Primary Care Residency Expansion (PCRE) program was created by the Health Resources and Services Administration in 2010 to help address the shortage of primary care physicians. If historical graduate placement trends for funded programs remain stable, the PCRE program would have a potential impact of more than 600 new physicians working i...

SETTING Latent tuberculous infection (LTBI) remains a significant source of new active tuberculosis cases. Recent guidelines encourage primary care physicians to prescribe LTBI treatment; however, there have been no investigations into the impact on treatment completion. OBJECTIVE To estimate LTBI treatment initiation and completion rates by primary care physicians. DESIGN A historical coho...

There are few studies from East and Central European countries on health-status, lifestyle and social circumstances of medical professionals. We evaluated data of a cohort of physicians who had graduated 30 years ago in Hungary and compared the data of their professional carrier, life style, health outcomes, and medical specialties. Questionnaires compiled by an expert group and filled in by 20...