Dealing with sickness certification – a survey of problems and strategies among general practitioners and orthopaedic surgeons

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In order to get sickness benefit a sick-listed person need a medical certificate issued by a physician; in Sweden after one week of self-certification. Physicians experience sick-listing tasks as problematic and conflicts may arise when patients regard themselves unable to work due to complaints that are hard to objectively verify for the physician. Most GPs and orthopaedic surgeons (OS) deal regularly with sick-listing issues in their daily practice. The aim of this study was to explore perceived problems and coping strategies related to tasks of sickness certification among general practitioners (GP) and orthopaedic surgeons (OS).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cross-sectional study about sickness certification in two Swedish counties, with 673 participating GPs and 149 OSs, who answered a comprehensive questionnaire. Frequencies together with crude and adjusted (gender and working years) Odds ratios were calculated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A majority of the GPs and OSs experienced problems in sickness certification every week. To assess the patient's work ability, to handle situations when they and the patient had different opinions about the need for sickness absence, and to issue prolongation certificates when the previous was issued by another physician were reported as problematic by a majority in both groups. Both GPs and OSs prolonged sickness certifications due to waiting times in health care or at Social Insurance Office (SIO). To handle experienced problems they used different strategies; OSs issued sickness certificates without personal appointment more often than the GPs, who on the other hand reported having contact with SIO more often than the OSs. A higher rate of GPs experienced support from management and had a common strategy for handling sickness certification at the clinic than the OSs.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Most GPs and OSs handled sickness certification weekly and reported a variety of problems in relation to this task, generally GPs to a higher extent, and they used different coping strategies to handle the problems.</p

Sickness-certification practice in different clinical settings; a survey of all physicians in a country

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>How physicians handle sickness-certification is essential in the sickness-absence process. Few studies have focused this task of physicians' daily work. Most previous studies have only included general practitioners. However, a previous study indicated that this is a common task also among other physicians. The aim of this study was to gain detailed knowledge about physicians' work with sickness-certification and of the problems they experience in this work.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A comprehensive questionnaire regarding sickness-certification practice was sent home to all physicians living and working in Sweden (N = 36,898; response rate: 61%). This study included physicians aged <65 years who had sickness-certification consultations at least a few times a year (n = 14,210). Descriptive statistics were calculated and odds ratios (OR) with 95 % confidence intervals (CI) were estimated for having different types of related problems, stratified on clinical settings, using physicians working in internal medicine as reference group.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Sickness-certification consultations were frequent; 67% of all physicians had such, and of those, 83% had that at least once a week. The proportion who had such consultations >5 times a week varied between clinical settings; from 3% in dermatology to 79% in orthopaedics; and was 43% in primary health care. The OR for finding sickness-certification tasks problematic was highest among the physicians working in primary health care (OR 3.3; CI 2.9-3.7) and rheumatology clinics (OR 2.6; CI 1.9-3.5). About 60% found it problematic to assess patients' work capacity and to provide a prognosis regarding the duration of work incapacity.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>So far, most interventions regarding physicians' sickness-certification practices have been targeted towards primary health care and general practitioners. Our results indicate that the ORs for finding these tasks problematic were highest in primary health care. Nevertheless, physicians in some other clinical settings more often have such consultations and many of them also find these tasks problematic, e.g. in rheumatology, neurology, psychiatry, and orthopaedic clinics. Thus, the results indicate that much can be gained through focusing on physicians in other types of clinics as well, when planning interventions to improve sickness-certification practice.</p

Health problems and disability in long-term sickness absence: ICF coding of medical certificates

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The purpose of this study was to test the feasibility of International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and to explore the distribution, including gender differences, of health problems and disabilities as reflected in long-term sickness absence certificates.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 433 patients with long sick-listing periods, 267 women and 166 men, were included in the study. All certificates exceeding 28 days of sick-listing sent to the local office of the Swedish Social Insurance Administration of a municipality in the Stockholm area were collected during four weeks in 2004-2005. ICD-10 medical diagnosis codes in the certificates were retrieved and free text information on disabilities in body function, body structure or activity and participation were coded according to ICF short version.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In 89.8% of the certificates there were descriptions of disabilities that readily could be classified according to ICF. In a reliability test 123/131 (94%) items of randomly chosen free text information were identically classified by two of the authors. On average 2.4 disability categories (range 0-9) were found per patient; the most frequent were 'Sensation of pain' (35.1% of the patients), 'Emotional functions' (34.1%), 'Energy and drive functions' (22.4%), and 'Sleep functions' (16.9%). The dominating ICD-10 diagnostic groups were 'Mental and behavioural disorders' (34.4%) and 'Diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue' (32.8%). 'Reaction to severe stress and adjustment disorders' (14.7%), and 'Depressive episode' (11.5%) were the most frequent diagnostic codes. Disabilities in mental functions and activity/participation were more commonly described among women, while disabilities related to the musculoskeletal system were more frequent among men.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Both ICD-10 diagnoses and ICF categories were dominated by mental and musculoskeletal health problems, but there seems to be gender differences, and ICF classification as a complement to ICD-10 could provide a better understanding of the consequences of diseases and how individual patients can cope with their health problems. ICF is feasible for secondary classifying of free text descriptions of disabilities stated in sick-leave certificates and seems to be useful as a complement to ICD-10 for sick-listing management and research.</p

Towards Understanding of Determinants of Physicians’ Sick-listing Practice and their Interrelations : A Population-based Epidemiological Study

Physicians are supposed to act as sick-listing experts and they possess a role as gate-keepers to the social insurance system. Earlier studies have demonstrated variation between physicians and physician categories regarding sick-listing practice. In addition to the patient's disease and its severity, a number of other factors may be expected to influence sick-listing practice. Most earlier studies have focused on the patient's disease and his or her work place as cause for sickness absence. The aims of this study were to analyse variation of sick-listing practice between physician categories and the influence of physician characteristics on sick-listing practice, the influence of structure, organisation and remuneration of health care on physician sick-listing practice, the influence of local structural factors in the community, and the influence of a legislative change on physician sick-listing practice. The study was conducted as a cross-sectional epidemiological study of 57563 doctors’ certificates for sickness absence, received by 28 local social insurance offices in eight Swedish counties, during four months in 1995 and two months in 1996. Patient age, sex, and diagnostic group, issuing physician category, presence of a hospital in the municipality, municipality population size and county were all significantly and independently correlated to number of net days of sick-listing. Physician characteristics, such as age, sex and degree of specialisation were all associated with number of net days of sick-listing. Physicians working in general practice issued significantly shorter periods of sick-listing than the other physician categories. Reimbursement of general practice and participation in financial co-operation with social insurance were significantly correlated to length of sickness episode issued by general practitioners. A legislative change performed during the study period was associated with small effects in sick-listing practice. In conclusion, a number of factors other than disease and disease severity and other patient and physician linked factors were found to influence the variation of sick-listing practice. It appears that the closer the influencing factor was to the place were the decision was taken, i.e., the patient-physician consultation, the higher the impact on the decision appeared to be

Sickness certification as a complex professional and collaborative activity - a qualitative study

Abstract Background Physicians have an important but problematic task to issue sickness certifications. A manifold of studies have identified a wide spectrum of medical and insurance-related problems in sickness certification. Despite educational efforts aiming to improve physicians’ knowledge of social insurance medicine there are no signs of reduction of these problems. We hypothesised that the quality deficits is not only due to lack of knowledge among issuing physicians. The aim of the study was to explore physicians’ challenges when handling sickness certification in relation to their professional roles as physicians and to their interaction with different stakeholders. Methods One hundred seventy-seven physicians in Stockholm County, Sweden, participated in a sick-listing audit program. Participants identified challenges in handling sick-leave issues and formulated action plans for improvement. Challenges and responsible stakeholders were identified in the action plans. To deepen the understanding facilitators of the program were interviewed. A qualitative content analysis was performed exploring challenge categories and categories of stakeholders with responsibility to initiate actions to improve the quality of the sick-listing process. The challenge categories were then related by their content to professional competence roles in accord with the Canadian Medical Education Directions for Specialists (CanMEDS) framework and to the stakeholder categories. Results Seven categories of challenges were identified. Practitioner patient interaction, Work capacity assessment, Interaction with the Social Insurance Administration, The patient’s workplace and the labour market, Sick-listing practice, Collaboration and resource allocation within the Health Care System, Leadership and routines at the Health Care Unit. The challenges were related to all seven CanMEDS roles. Five categories of stakeholders were identified and several stakeholders were involved in each challenge category. Conclusions Physicians performing sickness certification tasks experience a complex variety of challenges. From physician perspective actions to handle these need to be initiated in interaction with both medical and non-medical stakeholders. The relation between the challenges and a well-established professional competence framework revealed a complex pattern. Thus, from a public health perspective, educational activities aimed to improve the sick-listing process should address all physician competences including identification and interaction with stakeholders, and not just knowledge of social insurance medicine.</p