Review of The fifteen minute hour: Applied psychotherapy for the primary care physician.

Objective The purpose of the current study is to examine the relationship between the quality of the Patient-Doctor Relationship and suicidality among patients seeking mental health care; specifically, whether patients who perceive having a more positive relationship with primary care physician will have lower levels of suicidality. Method Cross-sectional population-based study in Greater Vancouver, Canada. One-hundred ninety-seven participants were recruited from three Mental Health Clinics who reported having a primary care physician. Participants completed a survey containing questions regarding items assessing quality of Patient-Doctor Relationship, general psychiatric distress (K10), borderline personality disorder, and suicidality (Suicidal Behaviours Questionnaire-Revised-SBQ-R). Zero-order correlations were computed to evaluate relationships between study variables. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to control for confounding variables. Results The quality of the patient doctor relationship was significantly negatively associated with suicidality. The association between the quality of the patient-doctor relationship and suicidality remained significant even after controlling for the effects of psychiatric symptom distress and borderline personality disorder features. Conclusions The degree to which patients’ perceive their primary care physician as understanding, reliable, and dedicated, is associated with a reduction in suicidal behaviors. Further research is needed to better explicate the mechanisms of this relationship over time.

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Identifying Content Themes in Primary Care Physician and Rheumatologist Communications Within Electronic Consultations: A Qualitative Study

ACR Open Rheumatology ◽

10.1002/acr2.11317 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jeanie Lee ◽

Sharon Rikin ◽

Ruchi Jain

Keyword(s):

Primary Care ◽

Qualitative Study ◽

Primary Care Physician ◽

Care Physician

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How long does it take patients to find a new primary care physician when theirs retires: a population-based, longitudinal study

Human Resources for Health ◽

10.1186/s12960-021-00633-9 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Lindsay Hedden ◽

Megan A. Ahuja ◽

M. Ruth Lavergne ◽

Kimberlyn M. McGrail ◽

Michael R. Law ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Primary Care ◽

Primary Care Physician ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Proportional Hazards ◽

Population Based ◽

Cox Proportional Hazards ◽

Care Physician ◽

Potential Threat ◽

Patient Age ◽

Patient Âgé

Abstract Background The retirement of a family physician can represent a challenge in accessibility and continuity of care for patients. In this population-based, longitudinal cohort study, we assess whether and how long it takes for patients to find a new majority source of primary care (MSOC) when theirs retires, and we investigate the effect of demographic and clinical characteristics on this process. Methods We used provincial health insurance records to identify the complete cohort of patients whose majority source of care left clinical practice in either 2007/2008 or 2008/2009 and then calculated the number of days between their last visit with their original MSOC and their first visit with their new one. We compared the clinical and sociodemographic characteristics of patients who did and did not find a new MSOC in the three years following their original physician’s retirement using Chi-square and Fisher’s exact test. We also used Cox proportional hazards models to determine the adjusted association between patient age, sex, socioeconomic status, location and morbidity level (measured using Johns Hopkins’ Aggregated Diagnostic Groupings), and time to finding a new primary care physician. We produce survival curves stratified by patient age, sex, income and morbidity. Results Fifty-four percent of patients found a new MSOC within the first 12 months following their physician’s retirement. Six percent of patients still had not found a new physician after 36 months. Patients who were older and had higher levels of morbidity were more likely to find a new MSOC and found one faster than younger, healthier patients. Patients located in more urban regional health authorities also took longer to find a new MSOC compared to those in rural areas. Conclusions Primary care physician retirements represent a potential threat to accessibility; patients followed in this study took more than a year on average to find a new MSOC after their physician retired. Providing programmatic support to retiring physicians and their patients, as well as addressing shortages of longitudinal primary care more broadly could help to ensure smoother retirement transitions.

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