General practitioners' and occupational health physicians' views on their cooperation: a cross-sectional postal survey.

Purpose: Prevention, rehabilitation and reintegration into the workplace are examples of overlapping work fields of general practitioners (GPs) and occupational health physicians (OPs). In Germany, however, cooperation between GPs and OPs is often lacking or suboptimal. In this article, we present GPs' and OPs' views on a variety of aspects of their cooperation and differences between them.

Methods: Survey questionnaire was developed on the basis of literature research and results of focus group interviews. Cross-sectional postal survey among GPs (n = 1000) and OPs (n = 383) was performed in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Explorative descriptive and logistic regression analyses were carried out (controlling for potential confounders).

Results: Response rates were 31 and 48 %, respectively. Mutual telephone calls were the most frequent contact medium (49 and 91 %, respectively). Both groups considered themselves to have clearly separate areas of responsibility (median = 4, rating scale from 1 "agree not at all" to 5 "agree definitely"). Necessity to cooperate and need to improve cooperation were both rated as 4 (by GPs) and 5 (by OPs), respectively (p < 0.001, Wilcoxon test). Several variables were found to be different by logistic regression analysis of answers from the two groups (e.g. in regard to importance of rehabilitation, primary prevention services, caring for chronically ill workers or changing of workplace conditions). Sensitive topics (e.g. concerning mutual rivalry, remuneration or adherence to medical confidentiality) were also found to be rated differently.

Conclusion: The data show potential interest of both physicians groups to develop cooperation. As the ratings often differed significantly, particularly in regard to statements presented, answers influenced by social desirability are generally unlikely.