title: The uptake of childhood immunization and financial incentives to general practitioners.
abstract: Among the target-linked services introduced by the 1990 general practitioners' contract, childhood immunization in Scotland is the best suited for GPs to achieve the high target, given a centralized call and recall system and public confidence in the service. Yet over 25% of the practices in the area of the Greater Glasgow Health Board did not qualify for the high target payments in the last quarter of the 1991/92 financial year. Examining indicators of the socioeconomic characteristics of the patient population, practice profiles and the effect of financial incentives, we discuss the reasons for cross-practice variation in the uptake of this service and estimate the probability of practices which missed the high target achieving it in the future.
authors.affiliation: Public Health Research Unit, University of Glasgow, UK.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Lynch
mesh_terms: D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003284:Contract Services / Q000191:economics; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D005194:Family Practice / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D017589:Immunization Programs / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007223:Infant; D012052:Reimbursement, Incentive / Q000191:economics*; D012606:Scotland