title: Do Irish general practitioners know how often their patients consult?
abstract: We report a study of the accuracy with which nine General Practitioners estimated the consulting rate of 889 patients over the preceding year. We found that their estimates were exact in 34% and that only 13 of 118 high frequency attenders were not detected. We conclude that single-handed GPs are aware of patient consulting rate, which has been shown to be a marker for unmet medical need.
authors.affiliation: Summerhill Health Centre, Co. Meath.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Maguire
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Clarke
mesh_terms: D005194:Family Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D009819:Office Visits / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*