| Title |
Importance of accessibility and opening hours to overall patient experience of general practice: analysis of repeated cross-sectional data from a national patient survey
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
British Journal of General Practice, June 2018
|
| DOI | 10.3399/bjgp18x697673 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Thomas E Cowling, Azeem Majeed, Matthew J Harris |
| Abstract |
The UK government aims to improve the accessibility of general practices in England, particularly by extending opening hours in the evenings and at weekends. It is unclear how important these factors are to patients' overall experiences of general practice. To examine associations between overall experience of general practice and patient experience of making appointments and satisfaction with opening hours. Analysis of repeated cross-sectional data from the General Practice Patient Surveys conducted from 2011-2012 until 2013-2014. These covered 8289 general practice surgeries in England. Data from a national survey conducted three times over consecutive years were analysed. The outcome measure was overall experience, rated on a five-level interval scale. Associations were estimated as standardised regression coefficients, adjusted for responder characteristics and clustering within practices using multilevel linear regression. In total, there were 2 912 535 responders from all practices in England (n = 8289). Experience of making appointments (β 0.24, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.24 to 0.25) and satisfaction with opening hours (β 0.15, 95% CI = 0.15 to 0.16) were modestly associated with overall experience. Overall experience was most strongly associated with GP interpersonal quality of care (β 0.34, 95% CI = 0.34 to 0.35) and receptionist helpfulness was positively associated with overall experience (β 0.16, 95% CI = 0.16 to 0.17). Other patient experience measures had minimal associations (β≤0.06). Models explained ≥90% of variation in overall experience between practices. Patient experience of making appointments and satisfaction with opening hours were only modestly associated with overall experience. Policymakers in England should not assume that recent policies to improve access will result in large improvements in patients' overall experience of general practice. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 161 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 66 | 41% |
| Netherlands | 11 | 7% |
| Ireland | 9 | 6% |
| United States | 5 | 3% |
| Sweden | 4 | 2% |
| Canada | 2 | 1% |
| Australia | 1 | <1% |
| Chile | 1 | <1% |
| Brazil | 1 | <1% |
| Other | 2 | 1% |
| Unknown | 59 | 37% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 100 | 62% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 38 | 24% |
| Scientists | 20 | 12% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 3 | 2% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 43 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 43 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Doctoral Student | 9 | 21% |
| Student > Bachelor | 5 | 12% |
| Student > Master | 4 | 9% |
| Researcher | 3 | 7% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 3 | 7% |
| Other | 4 | 9% |
| Unknown | 15 | 35% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine and Dentistry | 11 | 26% |
| Nursing and Health Professions | 5 | 12% |
| Social Sciences | 4 | 9% |
| Psychology | 2 | 5% |
| Business, Management and Accounting | 1 | 2% |
| Other | 5 | 12% |
| Unknown | 15 | 35% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 137. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 02 July 2019.
All research outputs
#302,104
of 25,402,889 outputs
Outputs from British Journal of General Practice
#109
of 4,890 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#6,563
of 341,759 outputs
Outputs of similar age from British Journal of General Practice
#2
of 115 outputs
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