ArticleAnnals of family medicine
Operational definitions of attributes of primary health care: consensus among Canadian experts.
Article in Annals of family medicine. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 116 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
116 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 262 citations in OpenAlex.
- Access or continuity: a zero sum game? A systematic review of the literature examining the relationship between access and continuity in primary healthcare.BMC primary care · 2025Pooled it
- The development of the Religious Health Interventions in Behavioural Science (RHIBS) Taxonomy: a scientific classification of religious practices in health.Translational behavioral medicine · 2022Pooled it
- A systematic literature review of patient self-assessment instruments concerning quality of primary care in multiprofessional clinics.Family practice · 2022Pooled it
- Effects of continuity of care on health outcomes among patients with diabetes mellitus and/or hypertension: a systematic review.BMC family practice · 2021Pooled it
- The breadth of primary care: a systematic literature review of its core dimensions.BMC health services research · 2010Pooled it
- Measuring patients' perceptions of patient-centered care: a systematic review of tools for family medicine.Annals of family medicinePooled it
- Stepped-Care Management of Insomnia: Treatment Choices Guided by a Patient Decision Aid in a Pragmatic Nonrandomized Clinical Trial Setting.Journal of sleep research · 2026Trial
- 'It's what we should be doing anyway': using financial incentives to promote relational continuity in Australian General Practice-a nested case study analysis.Family practice · 2025Trial
- Factors facilitating the implementation of a clinical decision support system in primary care practices: a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis.BMC health services research · 2023Trial
- Effectiveness of Quality Incentive Payments in General Practice (EQuIP-GP) cluster randomized trial: impact on patient-reported experience.Family practice · 2022Trial
- Trial
- Target for improvement: a cluster randomised trial of public involvement in quality-indicator prioritisation (intervention development and study protocol).Implementation science : IS · 2011Trial
- Psychometric properties and constructs of Patient Reported Experience Measures (PREMs) in primary care: a scoping review.BMC primary care · 2026Article
- Comprehensiveness in Primary Care: A Scoping Review.The Milbank quarterly · 2025Article
- Uneven primary healthcare supply of rural doctors and medical equipment in remote China: community impact and the moderating effect of policy intervention.International journal for equity in health · 2024Article
- Access to primary health care: perspectives of primary care physicians and community stakeholders.BMC primary care · 2024Article
- Quality of primary health care for chronic diseases in low-resource settings: Evidence from a comprehensive study in rural China.PloS one · 2024Article
- Development of a Patient-Reported Experience Measure Tool for Ambulatory Patients With Acute Unexpected Needs: The APEX Questionnaire.Journal of patient experience · 2024Article
- Have Primary Care Renewal Initiatives in Canada Increased Comprehensive Care for Patients with Complex Care Needs? Yes and No.Healthcare policy = Politiques de sante · 2023Article
- Successes and challenges towards improving quality of primary health care services: a scoping review.BMC health services research · 2023Article
56 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeIn 2004, we undertook a consultation with Canadian primary health care experts to define the attributes that should be evaluated in predominant and proposed models of primary health care in the Canadian context.
methodTwenty persons considered to be experts in primary health care or recommended by at least 2 peers responded to an electronic Delphi process. The expert group was balanced between clinicians (principally family physicians and nurses), academics, and decision makers from all regions in Canada. In 4 iterative rounds, participants were asked to propose and modify operational definitions. Each round incorporated the feedback from the previous round until consensus was achieved on most attributes, with a final consensus process in a face-to-face meeting with some of the experts.
resultsOperational definitions were developed and are proposed for 25 attributes; only 5 rate as specific to primary care. Consensus on some was achieved early (relational continuity, coordination-continuity, family-centeredness, advocacy, cultural sensitivity, clinical information management, and quality improvement process). The definitions of other attributes were refined over time to increase their precision and reduce overlap between concepts (accessibility, quality of care, interpersonal communication, community orientation, comprehensiveness, multidisciplinary team, responsiveness, integration).
conclusionThis description of primary care attributes in measurable terms provides an evaluation lexicon to assess initiatives to renew primary health care and serves as a guide for instrument selection.
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