Author/Editor		Kersnik, Janko
Title		Observational study of home visits in Slovene general practice: patient characteristics, practice characteristics and health care utilization
Type		članek
Source		Fam Pract
Vol. and No.		Letnik 17, št. 5
Publication year		2000
Volume		str. 389-93
Language		eng
Abstract		Background. Home visits are an important way of delivering primary health care, but there is a long-term decrease in home visit rates in many countries. Objective. The aim of this study was to evaluate patient characteristics, morbidity, functional status, quality of life, satisfaction with care, practice characteristics and health care utilization in general practice patients visited at home at least once in a study year. Methods. The design of the study was a cross-sectional surbey of the patients of a stratified sample of 36 GP offices in Slovenia using a self-administered quationnaire. Sixty consecutive patients in sampled practices containg the doctor in the office in the study period in March 1998 were included in the analysis. The age, sex, educational status, residence, presence of chronic condition, measures of anxiety of depressive symptoms, rates of patients who expressed a need for emergency care in 1 yar, rates of self-care, measures of functional status, quality of life, satisfaction with care, rates of using GP practice visits and out-of-hours services and rates of using specialist of hospital services were recorded in a home-visited group versus a non-visited group. Results. A total of 277 patients (15.4%) were reported to have at least one visit in the study year. Patients visited in their homed were older, predominantly female, better educated, had lower percpetions of their functional status and well-being and they used primary health services more frequently than others. Their GPs were more likely to be males, and were more likely to practise in rural areas, in solo practices as private practitioners. Conclusion. Home visits remain an important part of GP work in countries in transition, such as Slovenia, especially for more seriously ill patients.
Descriptors		HOUSE CALLS PRIMARY HEALTH CARE HOME CARE SERVICES MORBIDITY QUALITY OF LIFE PATIENT SATISFACTION CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDIES QUESTIONNAIRES SLOVENIA