Comparison of the UPC index and the SLICC
| UPC | SLICC | |
|---|---|---|
| Developed by | Academic unit | Service general practice |
| Intended use | Continuity of care research | Regular continuity measurement in day-to-day general practice |
| Unit of measurement | Patient | Appointment |
| Specificity to personal doctor | Generally used so that the most frequent provider is the ‘usual’ doctor. This may be another doctor, for example, a locum or trainee | Registered personal doctor only. This is a requirement |
| Most-seen GP | UPC can score a doctor as usual provider when they provide a minority of the appointments, just more than other doctors. More than one doctor can be the most-seen provider | Gives a percentage of appointments that are with the personal doctor |
| Range of scores | A score of 0 is impossible. Consistently higher than SLICC | Can be 0–100% |
| Timeframe | At least two and ideally more appointments required. This can take several years in relatively healthy patients | A measure for monthly audits |
| Selection bias | Includes only patients with a minimum number of appointments (usually two) | Includes all appointments |
| Ability to take into account team continuity | No, individual provider | No, individual provider |
| Ability to compare patient groups | Yes, although patients with few appointments are often excluded | Yes, especially between GP lists and including infrequent attenders |
| Ability to obtain scores for individual patients | Yes | No |
| Ease of use | Simple proportion easy to calculate and interpret | Simple proportion/percentage easy to calculate and interpret |
SLICC = St Leonard’s Index of Continuity of Care. UPC = usual provider of care.