Dimensions of practice management | Number of indicators | α | Intervention pre-test n = 26 | Intervention post-test n = 24 | Control pre-test n = 23 | Control post-test n = 21 | GLM uni-variate |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Accessibility and availability | |||||||
Time in minutes before practice picks up phone (po) | 1 | - | 5.9 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 6.2 | 0.916 |
Practice accessibility (po) | 6 | 0.71 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 76 | 0.228 |
Organisation of surgeries/availability (po) | 6 | 0.72 | 83 | 82 | 85 | 81 | 0.253 |
Medical care | |||||||
Supply of preventive care | 9 | 0.53 | 60 | 73 | 58 | 69 | 0.485 |
Delegation of medical technical tasks | 16 | 0.75 | 61 | 62 | 53 | 56 | 0.703 |
Delegation of health promotion tasks | 7 | 0.71 | 39 | 46 | 38 | 39 | 0.402 |
Infrastructure | |||||||
Practice facilities (po) | 4 | 0.70 | 79 | 79 | 76 | 79 | 0.744 |
Hygiene and facilities in treatment room | 8 | 0.36 | 55 | 63 | 60 | 58 | 0.096 |
Advanced medical equipment in the practice | 7 | 0.52 | 49 | 48 | 46 | 45 | 0.883 |
Laboratory facilities in the practice | 8 | 0.65 | 58 | 60 | 63 | 61 | 0.491 |
Organisation of the practice | 11 | 0.53 | 56 | 60 | 58 | 61 | 0.997 |
Team | |||||||
Meeting time with practice assistant (minutes) | 2 | - | 33 | 35 | 50 | 34 | 0.640 |
Collaboration in GP group | 11 | 0.62 | 67 | 65 | 66 | 70 | 0.163 |
Minutes/week regular meeting time with colleagues | 1 | - | 42 | 46 | 38 | 35 | 0.334 |
Agreements on collaboration with primary care partners | 4 | 0.35 | 24 | 26 | 24 | 33 | 0.109 |
Agreements on collaboration with hospital (specialists) | 7 | 0.57 | 50 | 58 | 58 | 63 | 0.962 |
Computerisation | |||||||
Degree of computerisation of the practice (IT) | 5 | 0.70 | 56 | 67 | 71 | 71 | 0.201 |
Electronic communication (hospital, pharmacy) | 5 | 0.59 | 48 | 62 | 50 | 68 | 0.494 |
Quality and safety | |||||||
Audit, assessment and other QI in the GP group | 8 | 0.65 | 44 | 48 | 38 | 40 | 0.505 |
Quality assurance in the practice | 10 | 0.57 | 35 | 45 | 34 | 46 | 0.931 |
po = patient opinion.
QI = quality improvement.
GLM = general linear models.