ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners1994
Fundholders' referral patterns and perceptions of service quality in hospital provision of elective general surgery.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 1994. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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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.
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.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- [Organisational reforms in the relationships between general doctors and specialists: impact on referrals].Atencion primaria · 2010Article
- General practice fundholding: progress to date.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 1998Review
- What do we known about fundholding in general practice?BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 1995Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe introduction of fundholding established an internal market in public sector health care, involving purchasers and providers contracting for the supply of health care.
aimThis study set out to examine fundholders' hospital referral patterns, and to evaluate the quality of the service provided to patients undergoing elective general surgery, as perceived by fundholding general practitioners.
methodA questionnaire was posted to the senior partners of all fundholding practices in the Trent Regional Health Authority area. This questionnaire requested assessments of the importance of 13 specified aspects of service quality and the quality of provision by general practitioners' most frequently-used hospitals. Five-point scales were employed in each case. Respondents were asked to provide additional details about their practice.
resultsA 67% response rate was achieved. Confidence in the consultant's ability, short waiting times and informative feedback from the providers emerged as the most important elements in referral decisions, while the cost of treatment and patient convenience received lower importance ratings. In terms of how well their providers were seen to perform, fundholders ranked confidence in the consultant and patient convenience highest, and style of hospital management lowest. The majority of referrals seemed to be local.
conclusionJudged in terms of fundholders' perceptions, sizeable variations in service quality between hospital providers of general surgery are evident.
Indexed as
Identifiers
7748666PMC1239078W217407948What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.