Measuring valued output in primary care: challenges and reconciliation

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Primary Care Medicine
• Patient Health Outcomes

Background:

• Strong primary care, characterized by high continuity, positively impacts patient and population health.
• Understanding the mechanisms linking continuity of care to health outcomes requires specific measures of primary care outputs.
• Current research lacks comprehensive and validated measures for most primary care outputs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and evaluate existing patient questionnaires measuring primary care outputs.
• To assess the extent to which current measures capture key outputs of high continuity of care.
• To highlight the need for developing validated measures for primary care outputs to advance research.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review to identify validated patient questionnaires.
• Specification of nine potential outputs of high continuity of care.
• Examination of 45 identified questionnaires against specified outputs.

Main Results:

• Eighteen of the 45 questionnaires covered one or more primary care outputs.
• The coverage of primary care outputs by existing questionnaires was variable and mostly limited.
• No single questionnaire comprehensively measured all identified outputs.

Conclusions:

• Validated measures of primary care outputs are crucial for strengthening clinical and health services research.
• Development of these measures will enhance the interpretation of intervention effects in healthcare.
• Improved understanding and measurement of primary care outputs can help address broader healthcare system challenges.