‘Mystery-shopper’ call handling and appointment availability measures, and national GP Patient Survey scores for high-, medium-, and low-scoring practices
| Practice access classificationa | P-value for test of group differences | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | Medium | Low | ||
| Mystery-shopper measures of accessb | ||||
| Call handling | ||||
| Calls answered by an automated system, %c | 57 | 45 | 50 | 0.090 |
| Calls not answered first time, %c | 23 | 21 | 27 | 0.506 |
| Time to answer the phone in seconds, median (IQR)d | 4 (7) | 7.5 (17) | 8 (11) | 0.001 |
| Time to complete the call in seconds, median (IQR)d | 70 (33) | 84.5 (55) | 81.5 (60) | 0.002 |
| Appointment availability | ||||
| Waiting time for first appointment in days, median (IQR)d | 1 (3) | 2 (6) | 3.5 (6) | < 0.001 |
| Waiting time for third appointment in days, median (IQR)d | 2 (4) | 3 (7) | 5 (7) | <0.001 |
| First appointment not available within 2 days, %c | 26 | 44 | 60 | <0.001 |
| National GP Patient Survey scores, median % (IQR) | ||||
| Find it easy to get through by phoned | 92 (7) | 70 (29) | 83 (9) | 0.001 |
| Find the receptionists helpfuld | 98 (2) | 94 (4) | 92 (4) | 0.001 |
| Can get an appointment fairly quicklyd | 93 (8) | 84 (3) | 72 (15) | <0.001 |
| Can get an appointment aheadd | 81 (17) | 69 (13) | 76 (14) | 0.187 |
| Can see their preferred doctord | 82 (22) | 70 (22) | 60 (15) | 0.002 |
| Are satisfied with the practiced | 96 (5%) | 93 (5) | 89 (7) | <0.001 |
| Would recommend the practice to othersd | 93 (6) | 88 (9) | 84 (9) | 0.001 |
↵a Classification based on national scores of timeliness of appointment availability when a prompt appointment was requested.
↵b Measures across high-, medium-, and low-scoring practices based on 190, 110, and 110 research calls (respectively) made to practices.
↵c Differences between practices in the high-, medium-, and low-scoring groups tested by χ2 tests.
↵d Differences tested by Kruskal-Wallis tests.