Patterns of health care utilization in an academic family practice

The theoretical model of family practice is one of primary, comprehensive, and continuous care to families. This model is not yet fully documented. In a test of a model's reality, 130 regular users of an academic family practice were surveyed. Eighty-two (63 percent) identified the practice as their usual source of care. Projected use of the practice within this subset ranged from 100 percent for general health examination to 20 percent for marital/sexual problems. Only 35 percent of the other 156 members of these 82 patients' households were said to use the practices as their usual source of care. To the extent that these findings can be generalized to other settings, it can be concluded that the health care utilization patterns of family medicine patients and their immediate family members fall short of specialty's expectations.