RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Who delivers preventive care as recommended?
JF Canadian Family Physician
JO Can Fam Physician
FD The College of Family Physicians of Canada
SP 1574
OP 1575.e5
VO 54
IS 11
A1 Amardeep Thind
A1 John Feightner
A1 Moira Stewart
A1 Cathy Thorpe
A1 Andrea Burt
YR 2008
UL http://www.cfp.ca/content/54/11/1574.abstract
AB OBJECTIVE To ascertain which physician and practice characteristics are associated with self-reported provision of preventive care as recommended by the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care. DESIGN Cross-sectional analysis of data from a decennial survey. SETTING Southwestern Ontario. PARTICIPANTS A total of 731 family physicians in various practice settings. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Number of patients to whom these physicians provided the recommended preventive services based on physicians’ responses to various scenarios presented in the survey. The responses were scored, and the median score was used to dichotomize physicians into high- and low-scoring groups. RESULTS Close to two-thirds of the physicians (61%) were in the high-scoring group. Female family physicians, graduates of Canadian medical schools, and physicians whose practices were organized into family health teams, family health groups, family health networks, community health centres, or health services organizations were more likely to be in the high-scoring group. Physicians practising solo and international medical graduates were more likely to be in the low-scoring group. CONCLUSION Reorganizing delivery of primary care into group practice models might improve provision of preventive services. Licensing requirements for international medical graduates should ensure that these physicians are adequately trained to provide preventive services as recommended in the Canadian context. More research is needed before our results can be generalized beyond southwestern Ontario.