Evidence map›Paper›PMID 22734115›Full record

ArticleBMJ open2012

Adaptive capacity of the Adjusted Clinical Groups Case-Mix System to the cost of primary healthcare in Catalonia (Spain): a observational study.

Antoni Sicras-Mainar, Soledad Velasco-Velasco, Ruth Navarro-Artieda, Alexandra Prados-Torres, Buenaventura Bolibar-Ribas, Concepción Violan-Fors, ACG Study Group

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMJ open, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
4.1field-weighted citation impact, top 5% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 12 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Review
  4. Article
  5. Association between fee-for-service expenditures and morbidity burden in primary care.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2014
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Antoni Sicras-MainarDirectorate of Planning, Badalona Serveis Assistencials SA, Badalona, Barcelona, Spain.
Soledad Velasco-Velasco
Ruth Navarro-Artieda
Alexandra Prados-Torres
Buenaventura Bolibar-Ribas
Concepción Violan-Fors
ACG Study Group
Badalona Serveis Assistencials · ESHospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol · ESInstituto de Investigación Sanitaria Aragón · ES

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivesTo describe the adaptive capacity of the Adjusted Clinical Groups (ACG) system to the cost of care in primary healthcare centres in Catalonia (Spain).

designRetrospective study (multicentres) conducted using computerised medical records.

setting13 primary care teams in 2008 were included.

participantsAll patients registered in the study centres who required care between 1 January and 31 December 2008 were finally studied. Patients not registered in the study centres during the study period were excluded. OUTCOME MEASURES: Demographic (age and sex), dependent (cost of care) and case-mix variables were studied. The cost model for each patient was established by differentiating the fixed and variable costs. To evaluate the adaptive capacity of the ACG system, Pearson's coefficient of variation and the percentage of outliers were calculated. To evaluate the explanatory power of the ACG system, the authors used the coefficient of determination (R(2)).

resultsThe number of patients studied was 227 235 (frequency: 5.9 visits per person per year), with a mean of 4.5 (3.2) episodes and 8.1 (8.2) visits per patient per year. The mean total cost was €654.2. The explanatory power of the ACG system was 36.9% for costs (56.5% without outliers). 10 ACG categories accounted for 60.1% of all cases and 19 for 80.9%. 5 categories represented 71% of poor performance (N=78 887, 34.7%), particularly category 0300-Acute Minor, Age 6+ (N=26 909, 11.8%), which had a coefficient of variation =139% and 6.6% of outliers.

conclusionsThe ACG system is an appropriate manner of classifying patients in routine clinical practice in primary healthcare centres in Catalonia, although improvements to the adaptive capacity through disaggregation of some categories according to age groups and, especially, the number of acute episodes in paediatric patients would be necessary to reduce intra-group variation.

Identifiers

PMID22734115
PMCPMC3383978
OpenAlexW2106929413

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.