Dataset Information

Analysis of the Comprehensiveness of Primary Care Clinics in Korea.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In the Republic of Korea, which medical specialties should take the responsibility for primary care and what the role of primary care should be are still unclear. In this study, we focused on the comprehensiveness of primary care to identify related factors.

Methods

The National Health Insurance Service (NHIS)-National Sample Cohort is a population-based cohort, sampled in the 2002 NHIS database and followed up until 2015. We used data collected from January 2014 to December 2015, including 20,423,832 outpatient visits in 19,557 office-based clinics. The Korean government has designated 52 simple or minor disease groups (SMDGs) to enhance the experience of patients who attend primary care for managing those diseases. We assessed comprehensiveness for each clinic as the number of SMDGs treated in each clinic for 2 years. We also identified the factors related to higher comprehensiveness, using logistic regression for analysis.

Results

The clinics included in the study had provided treatment for an average of 14 SMDGs during a 2-year period. Compared to general practitioners, internal medicine physicians presented higher comprehensiveness with an odds ratio (OR) of 2.29 (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.03-2.59), and family medicine physicians illustrated higher comprehensiveness (OR, 4.96; 95% CI, 3.59-6.83). Other specialties showed lower comprehensiveness than general practitioners. Clinics located in the capital city and metropolitan area tended to have lower comprehensiveness. Clinics hiring more doctors and having hospitalization facility showed higher comprehensiveness.

Conclusion

General physician, internal medicine, and family medicine are the fields providing comprehensive medical care in Korea. Clinics located in metropolitan area and capital city show lower comprehensiveness. The number of physicians is related to higher comprehensiveness of clinics.

SUBMITTER: Kim HJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7884899 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Analysis of the Comprehensiveness of Primary Care Clinics in Korea.

Kim Ha Jin HJ Shin Ji Yeh JY Yang Yun Jun YJ Cho Belong B Yun Jae Moon JM

Korean journal of family medicine 20200518 1

<h4>Background</h4>In the Republic of Korea, which medical specialties should take the responsibility for primary care and what the role of primary care should be are still unclear. In this study, we focused on the comprehensiveness of primary care to identify related factors.<h4>Methods</h4>The National Health Insurance Service (NHIS)-National Sample Cohort is a population-based cohort, sampled in the 2002 NHIS database and followed up until 2015. We used data collected from January 2014 to Dec ...[more]

PMID: 32418395

Similar Datasets

Project description:Although resistant hypertension (RH) is known to be associated with higher rates of cardiovascular events than is non-RH, there are no reported data on the prevalence of RH in Korean patients. We evaluated the prevalence and characteristics of RH among hypertensive patients treated at primary clinics in Korea.Between August 2010 and January 2011, 247 primary care physicians enrolled 3088 patients with essential hypertension. We acquired demographic and anthropometric data using a questionnaire, evaluated blood pressure, and conducted a variety of laboratory tests using serum and urine. RH was defined as systolic blood pressure ≥140 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure ≥90 mmHg with the use of three antihypertensive agents of different classes, including a diuretic, or controlled hypertension with the use of four or more medications.We analyzed 3088 patients with hypertension, 48.3 % of whom were men. The mean age of patients was 64.3 ± 11.3 years and the prevalence of RH was 7.9 %. Patients with RH were more likely to be men, and to have higher waist circumference, increased blood levels of HbA1c, triglycerides, and serum creatinine, lower blood levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and higher rates of current smoker, history of heart failure or coronary artery disease, and electrocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), than were patients with non-RH (all comparisons, P < 0.05). In the multivariate analysis, RH was shown to be significantly associated with the following conditions: presence of electrocardiographic LVH (odds ratio [OR] 2.23, 95 % confidence interval [CI] 1.34-3.71), current smoker (OR 1.75, 95 % CI 1.27-2.40), renal impairment (OR 1.65, 95 % CI 1.23-2.22), abdominal obesity (OR 1.60, 95 % CI 1.20-2.13), and cardiovascular diseases (OR 1.50, 95 % CI 1.04-2.17).The prevalence of RH was relatively low at primary clinics in Korea compared with the prevalence reported in other countries. RH was associated with electrocardiographically confirmed LVH, renal impairment, current smoker, abdominal obesity, and cardiovascular diseases. These are the first reported data of RH in Korea. Our findings may be helpful in the early detection and thorough clinical management of patients with RH at primary clinics.

Project description:BackgroundQuality metrics, pay for performance (P4P), and value-based payments are prominent aspects of the current and future American healthcare system. However, linking clinic payment to clinic quality measures may financially disadvantage safety-net clinics and their patient population because safety-net clinics often have worse quality metric scores than non-safety net clinics. The Minnesota Safety Net Coalition's Quality Measurement Enhancement Project sought to collect data from primary care providers' (PCPs) experiences, which could assist Minnesota policymakers and state agencies as they create a new P4P system. Our research study aims are to identify PCPs' perspectives about 1) quality metrics at safety net clinics and non-safety net clinics, 2) how clinic quality measures affect patients and patient care, and 3) how payment for quality measures may influence healthcare.MethodsQualitative interviews with 14 PCPs (4 individual interviews and 3 focus groups) who had worked at both safety net and non-safety net primary care clinics in Minneapolis-St Paul Minnesota USA metropolitan area. Qualitative analyses identified major themes.ResultsThree themes with sub-themes emerged. Theme #1: Minnesota's current clinic quality scores are influenced more by patients and clinic systems than by clinicians. Theme #2: Collecting data for a set of specific quality measures is not the same as measuring quality healthcare. Subtheme #2.1: Current quality measures are not aligned with how patients and clinicians define quality healthcare. Theme #3: Current quality measures are a product of and embedded in social and structural inequities in the American health care system. Subtheme #3.1: The current inequitable healthcare system should not be reinforced with financial payments. Subtheme #3.2: Health equity requires new metrics and a new healthcare system. Overall, PCPs felt that the current inequitable quality metrics should be replaced by different metrics along with major changes to the healthcare system that could produce greater health equity.ConclusionAligning payment with the current quality metrics could perpetuate and exacerbate social inequities and health disparities. Policymakers should consider PCPs' perspectives and create a quality-payment framework that does not disadvantage patients who are affected by social and structural inequities as well as the clinics and providers who serve them.

Dataset Information

Analysis of the Comprehensiveness of Primary Care Clinics in Korea.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Analysis of the Comprehensiveness of Primary Care Clinics in Korea.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets