Primary and preventive care in a university obstetrics and gynecology group practice.
OBJECTIVE
Our purpose was to determine whether primary and preventive care is practiced by a university obstetrician-gynecologist group practice.


METHODS
A retrospective chart review spanning 2 years of four academic physicians' private practices was performed. A total of 335 patients were reviewed with 739 patient encounters and 1032 patient problems identified. The definition of a primary care physician according to The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists was used to standardize data collection and evaluation.


RESULTS
Obstetric complaints accounted for 27.7% of all visits, whereas 65.4% were for gynecologic problems. Almost 7% of all complaints were neither obstetric nor gynecologic, and of those 74.6% were primary care problems completely managed by the obstetrician-gynecologist. Only 19.7% of these were referred for management. More than 89% of all encounters (659/739) involved some element of primary care.


CONCLUSIONS
This study provides evidence that the majority of health care provided by the obstetrician-gynecologist is primary care.
Hendrix
S L
SL
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA.
Piereson
S D
SD
McNeeley
S G
SG
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006176:Gynecology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008824:Michigan; D008875:Middle Aged; D009774:Obstetrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010821:Physicians, Family; D011315:Preventive Medicine; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014495:Universities