Patient complaint cases in primary health care: what are the characteristics of general practitioners involved?

Background: Limited knowledge exists about factors increasing the risk of general practitioners becoming involved in a complaint case or getting disciplined in connection with a complaint case.

Aim: The present study aimed to identify the general practitioner and practice characteristics associated with complaint cases and discipline.

Methods: Information on general practitioners involved in complaint case decisions during one year (2007) was linked to Danish National register data on all general practitioners (n = 3,765).

Characteristics of complaints resulting in disciplinary actions against Danish GPs.

Objective: The risk of being disciplined in connection with a complaint case causes distress to most general practitioners. The present study examined the characteristics of complaint cases resulting in disciplinary action.

Material And Methods: The Danish Patients' Complaints Board's decisions concerning general practice in 2007 were examined.

Process-related factors associated with disciplinary board decisions.

Background: In most health care systems disciplinary boards have been organised in order to process patients' complaints about health professionals. Although, the safe-guarding of the legal rights of the involved parties is a crucial concern, there is limited knowledge about what role the complaint process plays with regard to board decision outcomes. Using complaint cases towards general practitioners, the aim of this study was to identify what process factors are statistically associated with disciplinary actions as seen from the party of the complainant and the defendant general practitioner, respectively.

A Danish cost-effectiveness model of escitalopram in comparison with citalopram and venlafaxine as first-line treatments for major depressive disorder in primary care.

The objective of this study was to model the cost-effectiveness of escitalopram in comparison with generic citalopram and venlafaxine in primary care treatment of major depressive disorder (baseline scores 22-40 on the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale, MADRS) in Denmark. A three-path decision analytic model with a 6-month horizon was used. All patients started at the primary care path and were referred to outpatient or inpatient secondary care in the case of insufficient response to treatment.

Tympanometry for diagnosis and treatment of otitis media in general practice.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of tympanometry for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of otitis media in general practice.

Methods: The results from otoscopy performed by 40 physicians in general practice in Vejle County, Denmark were combined with the clinical condition and this was recorded as the preliminary decision about diagnosis, treatment and follow-up. Subsequently, tympanometry was performed in 3176 children aged between 1 month and 16 years; a total of 6352 tympanometries.