BACKGROUND Continuity is an important aspect of quality of care, especially for complex patients in the community. We explored provider perceptions of continuity through a system's lens. The circle of care was used as the system. METHODS Soft systems methodology was used to understand and improve continuity for end of life patients in two communities. PARTICIPANTS Physicians, nurses, pharma...

BACKGROUND The relationship between continuity of care and user characteristics or outcomes has rarely been explored. The ECHO study operationalized and tested a multi-axial definition of continuity of care, producing a seven-factor model used here. AIMS To assess the relationship between user characteristics and established components of continuity of care, and the impact of continuity on cl...

BACKGROUND One major goal of the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is to improve continuity of care between patients and providers and reduce the utilization of non-primary care services like the emergency department (ED). OBJECTIVE To characterize continuity under the Veterans Health Administration's PCMH model--the Patient Aligned Care Team (PACT), at one large Veterans Affair's (VA's) p...

BACKGROUND To compare experienced continuity of care among women who received midwife-led versus obstetrician-led care. Secondly, to compare experienced continuity of care with a. experienced quality of care during labor and b. perception of labor. METHODS We conducted a questionnaire survey in a region in the Netherlands in 2014 among 790 women after they gave birth. To measure experienced c...

transfer of patients from the cardiac intensive care unit to the general ward, is one of the main reasons for anxiety. given that the transfer anxiety may be due to receive at least, inconsistent or do not receive enough information before the patients leaving the intensive care unit, therefore, this study aimed to determine the effect of information provision on anxiety levels in patients tran...

Objective: to gain an understanding of how women conceptualise continuity of maternity care. Design: a qualitative study involving in-depth semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis. Setting: a range of urban and rural public hospitals in New South Wales, Australia. Participants: 53 women aged 18-44 years (median age 27 years) receiving maternity care in 2011 2012. Findings: responses fr...