Organisational capacity and chronic disease care: an Australian general practice perspective.
Although we are rapidly improving our understanding of how to manage patients with chronic illness in Australian general practice, many patients are still receiving suboptimal care. General practices have limited organisational capacity to provide the structured care that is required for managing chronic conditions: regular monitoring, decision support, patient recall, supporting patient self management, team work, and information management. This requires a shift away from episodic, acute models. Overseas research has shown that areas such as team work, clinical information systems, decision support, linkages and leadership are also important in managing chronic illness, but we do not know which of these are most important in Australia.
Proudfoot
Judith
J
Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales. j.proudfoot@unsw.edu.au
Infante
Fernando
F
Holton
Christine
C
Powell-Davies
Gawaine
G
Bubner
Tanya
T
Beilby
Justin
J
Harris
Mark
M
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001315:Australia; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000628:therapy*; D005194:Family Practice / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D020399:Practice Management / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*