title: The variety of primary healthcare organisations in Australia: a taxonomy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Healthcare policy appears to treat healthcare organisations as being homogenous, despite evidence that they vary considerably. This study develops a taxonomy of primary health care practices using characteristics associated with the job satisfaction of general medical practitioners (GPs) and the practices.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study used data from 3,662 survey respondents who were GPs in the 2009 wave of the MABEL survey. Cluster analyses were used to determine natural groups of medical practices based on multidimensional characteristics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seven configurations of primary health care practices emerged from multivariate cluster analyses: optimised team, independent craft, reactive, winding down, classic, practitioner flexible, and scale efficiency.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This taxonomy of configurations moves beyond simplistic categorisations such as geographic location and highlights the complexity of primary health care organisations in Australia. Health policy, workforce and procedure interventions informed by taxonomies can engage the diversity of primary health care practices.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Business, Australian Catholic University, Locked Bag 4115 Fitzroy MDC, Victoria 3065, Australia. john.rodwell@acu.edu.au
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rodwell
authors.forename: Andre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gulyas
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D058005:General Practitioners / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D010348:Patient Care Team; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000145:classification*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
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