title: [The content of ambulatory family practice in Kaohsiung Medical College Hospital].
abstract: To understand the content of ambulatory family practice and find effective ways to improve clinical service, education and research in the Department of Family Medicine of Kaohsiung Medical College Hospital, we surveyed 14,064 patients from Jan. 1984 to Feb. 1991 and analysed (a) their basic demographic data including sex, age, insurance type, source and residential district and (b) clinical health problems covering 25,679 diagnoses and 148,994 diagnostic visits. Clinical health problems were recorded by the ICHPPC-2 code system. Results of basic demographic survey were as follow: 49.1% of patients was male and 50.9% female; 58.9% fell in the age group of 16-40 years and 22.4%, 12.0% and 6.7% of patients fell into the age groups of 41-65, under 16 and over 65 years respectively; 62.8% was insured usually by labor insurance and 26.9% had no insurance; the commonest referrals were other patients, colleagues, company personnel, doctors, media ... etc.; 58.8% lived in Kaohsiung City and 19.6% in Kaohsiung county. As for clinical health problems, the data showed that the commonest thirty diagnoses encountered at our clinic accounted for 69.3% of 25,679 diagnoses and the commonest ten diagnoses in descending order were medical health examination, acute URI, abdominal pain, uncomplicated hypertension, prophylactic immunization, hepatitis B carrier, back pain, anxiety disorder, viral hepatitis and irritable bowel syndrome. By calculating the average value of each diagnosis in a sample of 148,994 diagnostic visits to evaluate the habits of practice, we found that the commonest ten diagnostic visits at clinic in descending order were diabetes mellitus, hypertension involving target organ, uncomplicated hypertension, gout, hyperthyroidism, duodenal ulcer, tuberculosis, lipid metabolism disorder, other peptic ulcer and depressive disorders; all were chronic diseases. We concluded it was very important and helpful for the development of family medicine program and primary care unit to understand the content of their own ambulatory practice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical College, Taiwan, Republic of China.
authors.forename: C T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: H W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: C S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Hwang
mesh_terms: D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000592:standards*; D005194:Family Practice / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D013624:Taiwan