3/2007Number of attendances in two family medicine practices

LILIA KOTKOWIAK (Zakład Medycyny Rodzinnej Pomorskiej Akademii Medyczne; jKierownik: dr n. med. Anna Sałacka)

Background
Family practice needs data about number of visits and the most common reason for attendance in the practice. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Material and methods
The research was conducted in the family practice over a period of one year. We examined clinical chart of 8855 – I practices (4966 women, 3899 men) and 6505 – II practice (3296 women, 3209 men) adult patients aged 18–104. The records of patients were reviewed for analysis of their social and demographic characteristics, kind and number of attendance.

Results
The mean attendance in the first practice was 4.3, in the other practice was 4.18. The patients over-using family practice (216 – I practice, 122 – II practice) generated 15.44% and 11.32% of all visits in examined practices. Mean number of visits in I practice was 25.8 in II 25.2. There was not significant difference between age, sex and location of practices and attendance. The most common reason for attendance was hypertension, mental disorders, joints disorders.

Key words: general practitioner, visits, attendances