Continuity of care is associated with well-coordinated care.
BACKGROUND
The importance of continuity of care as a means to promote care coordination remains controversial.


OBJECTIVE
To determine if there is an association between having an objective measure of continuity of care and parental perception that care is well coordinated.


METHODS
Cross-sectional study.


METHODS
Seven hundred fifty-nine patients presenting to a primary care clinic completed surveys that included 5 items from the Components of Primary Care Index (CPCI) that relate to care coordination. MAIN PREDICTOR VARIABLE: A continuity of care index (COC) that quantifies the degree of dispersion of care among providers.


METHODS
Likelihood of parents reporting high scores on the care coordination domain as well as each of the 5 individual CPCI items related to care coordination.


RESULTS
Greater continuity of care was associated with higher scores on the CPCI care-coordination domain (P <.001). Continuity of care was also specifically associated with increased odds of agreeing with all 5 individual CPCI items, including reporting that their child's provider "always knows about care my child received in other places" (OR 3.97 [2.11-7.49]), "communicates with the other health care providers my child sees" (OR 2.98 [1.63-5.44]), "knows the results of my child's visits to other doctors" (OR 2.02 [1.08-3.80]), and "always follows up on a problem my child has had, either at the next visit or by phone" (OR 6.20 [2.88-13.35]) and wanting one provider to coordinate all of the health care that the child receives (OR 3.28 [1.48-7.27]).


CONCLUSIONS
Greater continuity of primary care is associated with better care coordination as perceived by parents. Efforts to improve and maintain continuity may be justified.
Christakis
Dimitri A
DA
Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle 98115, USA. dachris@u.washington.edu
Wright
Jeffrey A
JA
Zimmerman
Frederick J
FJ
Bassett
Alta L
AL
Connell
Frederick A
FA
D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000592:standards*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D014861:Washington