INTRODUCTION Numerous reports highlight the problem of declining primary care capacity in the USA, especially in rural and remote areas. The reasons for declining primary care capacity are elusive. Little progress is likely without better definitions, tools, and approaches. The author proposes a standard primary care workforce year to adjust each primary care form for losses due to specializati...

Introduction Health-care service processes need to be assessed over time. We aimed to assess the breast cancer care process in primary health system of Golestan Province, North Iran. Materials and Methods To perform a descriptive cross-sectional study, information on breast cancer care processes in primary health-care system was collected using a "collecting form" from 234 health houses, 29 h...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Primary care physician (PCP) shortages are a longstanding problem in the rural United States. This study describes the 2005 supply of two important components of the rural PCP workforce: rural osteopathic (DO) and international medical graduate (IMG) PCPs. METHODS American Medical Association (AMA) and American Osteopathic Association (AOA) 2005 Masterfiles were comb...

BACKGROUND There is a workforce crisis in primary care. Previous research has looked at the reasons underlying recruitment and retention problems, but little research has looked at what works to improve recruitment and retention. The aim of this systematic review is to evaluate interventions and strategies used to recruit and retain primary care doctors internationally. METHODS A systematic r...

The Health Extension Program is one of the most innovative community-based health programs in Ethiopia. It is based on the assumption that access to and quality of primary health care in rural communities can be improved through transfer of health knowledge and skills to households. Since it became operational in 2004-2005, the Program has had a tangible effect on the thinking and practices of ...

BACKGROUND UniNet is an Internet-based thematic network for a virtual community of users (VCU). It supports a virtual multidisciplinary community for physicians, focused on the improvement of clinical practice. This is a study of the effects of a thematic network such as UniNet on primary care medicine in a rural area, specifically as a platform of communication between specialists at the hospi...

INTRODUCTION Two small rural towns in Australia, where medical practitioners provide primary care to the population, including emergency, anaesthetic and obstetric services, were early adopters of an innovative year-long integrated clerkship (clinical placement) designed to foster medical student skill attainment and a commitment to underserved rural communities. Primary care vocational trainee...

from 22 may 1976 to 19 february 1977 out of 27742 patients which were referred to health and social welfare network of west azerbaijan in chonqralu (field laboratory of school of public health and institute of public health research in health services development research project in iran), 22693 (81.81%) simple cases were managed by the behvarz (female front line health worker), in nine health ...

Background. Rural residents seeking health care face barriers due to a shortage of healthcare professionals and the travel distance required to obtain medical services. This can lead to potentially harmful health outcomes, particularly when these citizens are unable to access specialized medical care. Few studies have specifically evaluated rural residents’ ability to access medical specialists...

BACKGROUND Little is known about variations in the quality of ambulatory care between urban and rural communities for patients with stable ischemic heart disease. The objectives of this study were to understand the effect of rurality on variations of ambulatory processes of care and outcomes for patients with stable ischemic heart disease. METHODS AND RESULTS A population-based cohort study w...