Through the patients' eyes: psychometric evaluation of the 64-item version of the Experienced Patient-Centeredness Questionnaire (EPAT-64).

Background: Patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) are valuable tools to evaluate patient-centredness (PC) from the patients' perspective. Despite their utility, a comprehensive PREM addressing PC has been lacking. To bridge this gap, we developed the preliminary version of the Experienced Patient-Centeredness Questionnaire (EPAT), a disease-generic tool based on the integrative model of PC comprising 16 dimensions.

Intramural Health Care Through Video Consultations and the Need for Referrals and Hospital Admissions: Retrospective Quantitative Subanalysis of an Evaluation Study.

Background: In comparison to the general population, prison inmates are at a higher risk for drug abuse and psychiatric, as well as infectious, diseases. Although intramural health care has to be equivalent to extramural services, prison inmates have less access to primary and secondary care. Furthermore, not every prison is constantly staffed with a physician.

Asking the generalist - evaluation of a General Practice rounding and consult service.

Background: Vascular surgery patients admitted to the hospital are often multimorbid. In case of questions regarding chronic medical problems different specialties are consulted, which leads to a high number of treating physicians and possibly contradicting recommendations. The General Practitioner´s (GP) view could minimize this problem.

Biomarkers for predicting atrial fibrillation: An explorative sub-analysis of the randomised SCREEN-AF trial.

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common treatable risk factor for stroke. Screening for paroxysmal AF in general practice is difficult, but biomarkers might help improve screening strategies.

Objectives: We investigated six blood biomarkers for predicting paroxysmal AF in general practice.

Synergism of an Urgent Care Walk-in Clinic With an Emergency Department.

Background: The overutilization of hospital emergency departments by low-urgency patients is seen as a growing problem in health-care delivery, and a variety of solutions are under discussion. We studied the change in utilization of a hospital emergency department (ED) by low-urgency patients after an urgent care walk-in clinic (WIC) was opened in the immediate vicinity.

Methods: A prospective, single-center pre-post comparative study was carried out at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE).

Different definitions of multimorbidity and their effect on prevalence rates: a retrospective study in German general practices.

Background: Multimorbidity is common among general practice patients and increases a general practitioner's (GP's) workload. But the extent of multimorbidity may depend on its definition and whether a time delimiter is included in the definition or not.

Aims: The aims of the study were (1) to compare practice prevalence rates yielded by different models of multimorbidity, (2) to determine how a time delimiter influences the prevalence rates and (3) to assess the effects of multimorbidity on the number of direct and indirect patient contacts as an indicator of doctors' workload.

The Role of General Practice in Complex Health Care Systems.

According to the WHO, in a complex system, "there are so many interacting parts that it is difficult (…), to predict the behavior of the system based on knowledge of its component parts. "In countries without general practitioner (GP)-gatekeeping, the number of possible interactions and therefore the complexity increases. Patients may consult any doctor without contacting their GP.

Screening for Atrial Fibrillation in the Older Population: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a major cause of preventable strokes. Screening asymptomatic individuals for AF may increase anticoagulant use for stroke prevention.

Objective: To evaluate 2 home-based AF screening interventions.

General practitioners' concepts on issuing out-of-pocket prescriptions for hypnotics and sedatives in Germany.

Background: In Germany, almost 50% of prescriptions for benzodiazepines and drugs as Zolpidem and Zopiclone are as out-of-pocket (OOP) prescriptions-requiring patients to buy the drug at their own expense-although almost 90% of the population has statutory health insurance covering medication costs.

Objective: To understand why general practitioners (GPs) choose this prescribing method since needed medications are insurance covered, and unnecessary drugs should not be prescribed at all.

Methods: In this qualitative study, 17 semi-structured interviews with GPs were conducted, audio recorded and transcribed verbatim.