Are we under-utilizing the talents of primary care personnel? A job analytic examination.

Implement Sci

Houston Center for Quality of Care & Utilization Studies, Michael E DeBakey VA Medical Center, Houston, TX, USA.

Published: March 2007

Background: Primary care staffing decisions are often made unsystematically, potentially leading to increased costs, dissatisfaction, turnover, and reduced quality of care. This article aims to (1) catalogue the domain of primary care tasks, (2) explore the complexity associated with these tasks, and (3) examine how tasks performed by different job titles differ in function and complexity, using Functional Job Analysis to develop a new tool for making evidence-based staffing decisions.

Methods: Seventy-seven primary care personnel from six US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Centers, representing six job titles, participated in two-day focus groups to generate 243 unique task statements describing the content of VA primary care. Certified job analysts rated tasks on ten dimensions representing task complexity, skills, autonomy, and error consequence. Two hundred and twenty-four primary care personnel from the same clinics then completed a survey indicating whether they performed each task. Tasks were catalogued using an adaptation of an existing classification scheme; complexity differences were tested via analysis of variance.

Results: Objective one: Task statements were categorized into four functions: service delivery (65%), administrative duties (15%), logistic support (9%), and workforce management (11%). Objective two: Consistent with expectations, 80% of tasks received ratings at or below the mid-scale value on all ten scales. Objective three: Service delivery and workforce management tasks received higher ratings on eight of ten scales (multiple functional complexity dimensions, autonomy, human error consequence) than administrative and logistic support tasks. Similarly, tasks performed by more highly trained job titles received higher ratings on six of ten scales than tasks performed by lower trained job titles. Contrary to expectations, the distribution of tasks across functions did not significantly vary by job title.

Conclusion: Primary care personnel are not being utilized to the extent of their training; most personnel perform many tasks that could reasonably be performed by personnel with less training. Primary care clinics should use evidence-based information to optimize job-person fit, adjusting clinic staff mix and allocation of work across staff to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1852323PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1748-5908-2-10DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

primary care
32
job titles
16
tasks
12
tasks performed
12
care personnel
12
ten scales
12
care
9
primary
8
job
8
task statements
8

Similar Publications

Background: Whether a detected virus or bacteria is a pathogen that may require treatment, or is merely a commensal 'passenger', remains confusing for many infections. This confusion is likely to increase with the wider use of multi-pathogen PCR.

Objectives: To propose a new statistical procedure to analyse and present data from case-control studies clarifying the probability of causality.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Point-of-care ultrasound in the diagnosis of hepatic gas gangrene.

J Ultrasound

January 2025

Argentinian Critical Care Ultrasonography Association (ASARUC), Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Hepatic gas gangrene (HGG) is a rare but life-threatening condition typically caused by anaerobic bacteria such as Clostridium perfringens, though Gram-negative bacteria like Escherichia coli and Klebsiella species have also been implicated. Traditionally diagnosed via computed tomography (CT), point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) has emerged as a valuable tool in critical care settings for its non-invasive, bedside utility. We report the case of a 51-year-old female with choledochal syndrome secondary to cholangiocarcinoma who developed HGG following left extended hepatectomy and biliary reconstruction.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Evaluating Clinician Experience in Health Care Transition: Results From Six Health Systems.

J Adolesc Health

January 2025

The National Alliance to Advance Adolescent Health/Got Transition, Washington, D.C.

Purpose: There is a paucity of evidence examining clinician experiences with structured health-care transition (HCT) programs. Among HCT Learning Collaborative participants, this study describes clinician experiences with implementation of a structured HCT process: Got Transition's 6 Core Elements.

Methods: Representative members from 6 health systems designed a survey to collect clinician feedback regarding HCT and demographic and practice information.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

What Does it Cost to Provide Free Maternal and Child Health Services in Primary Health Centres? A Case Study of Imo State, Southeast Nigeria.

West Afr J Med

September 2024

Health Policy Research Group, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria Enugu-Campus, Enugu, Nigeria.

Background: This study estimated the cost of providing free maternal and child health (MCH) services at the primary health centre (PHC) level in southeast Nigeria. The costs of providing an essential benefit package of maternal and child health (MCH) services are unknown. Such information is required for optimal resource allocation decisions and for replicating similar programmes in different settings.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!