Chronic Care Team Profile: a brief tool to measure the structure and function of chronic care teams in general practice.
OBJECTIVE
At a time when workforce shortages in general practices are leading to greater role substitution and skill-mix diversification, and the demand on general practices for chronic disease care is increasing, the structure and function of the general practice team is taking on heightened importance. To assist general practices and the organizations supporting them to assess the effectiveness of their chronic care teamworking, we developed an interview tool, the Chronic Care Team Profile (CCTP), to measure the structure and function of teams in general practice. This paper describes its properties and potential use.


METHODS
An initial pool of items was derived from guidelines of best-practice for chronic disease care and performance standards for general practices. The items covered staffing, skill-mix, job descriptions and roles, training, protocols and procedures within the practice. The 41-item pool was factor analysed, retained items were measured for internal consistency and the reduced instrument's face, content and construct validity were evaluated.


RESULTS
A three-factor solution corresponding to non-general practitioner staff roles in chronic care, administrative functions and management structures provided the best fit to the data and explained 45% of the variance in the CCTP. Further analyses suggested that the CCTP is reliable, valid and has some utility.


CONCLUSIONS
The CCTP measures aspects of the structure and function of general practices which are independent of team processes. It is associated with the job satisfaction of general practice staff and the quality of care provided to patients with chronic illnesses. As such, the CCTP offers a simple and useful tool for general practices to assess their teamworking in chronic disease care.
Proudfoot
Judith G
JG
Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia. j.proudfoot@unsw.edu.au
Bubner
Tanya
T
Amoroso
Cheryl
C
Swan
Edward
E
Holton
Christine
C
Winstanley
Julie
J
Beilby
Justin
J
Harris
Mark F
MF
D001315:Australia; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000628:therapy*; D005194:Family Practice; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000592:standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*