Primary care in Switzerland: evolution of physicians' profile and activities in twenty years (1993-2012).

BACKGROUND: According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Swiss healthcare system is one of the most effective in the world. Yet, as other occidental countries, it has to face the increase of chronic diseases frequency and its resulting cost, particularly for primary care (PC). However very few consistent data are available to describe PC features and its evolution over time. The aim of this study is to describe the evolution of the Swiss PC physicians' (PCPs) profile and activities between 1993 and 2012. METHODS: The date come from two independent European surveys carried out in Switzerland respectively in 1993 and 2012. Both surveys were cross-sectional ones and based on representative samples of 200 PCPs, interviewed by questionnaire. RESULTS: In 20 years, PCPs became older (median age 46 vs 56, p < 0.001) and more feminized (7 % vs 22 %, p < 0.001). Nowadays, they more often work in group practices (28 % vs 52 % in 2012, p < 0.001) and are more involved in other paid activities (28 % vs 66 % in 2012, p < 0.001). All the PCPs have a computer in 2012 (78 % in 1993, p < 0.001) and it is mostly used for keeping records of consultations (47 %). The number of daily face-to-face contacts with patients decreased from 31 to 24 but the average length rose from 15 to 20 min (p < 0.001). PCPs provide fewer pediatric and gynecological services but their activity remains globally unchanged in other domains. The frequency of meetings with other disciplines decreased significantly (e.g. once/month face-to-face meets with ambulatory specialists: 78 % vs 23 % in 2012, p < 0.001). The involvement of PCPs in follow-up and treatment of chronic disease globally little differed. In 2012, 8.5 % of the PCPs never performed any chirurgical acts (vs 0 % in 1993, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: This study showed a substantial evolution of Swiss PC over the last twenty years in terms of socio-demographic, organizational and service provided. The main changes include: feminization and ageing, lower diversity in services provided, fewer but longer consultations. These changes may have important implications for patients' management and will need to be considered for health planning purposes

Patient experience in primary care: association with patient, physician and practice characteristics in a fee-for-service system.

Nowadays we typically use patient experience as a quality of care indicator, although this has some limitations. The aim of this study was to investigate to what extent patient, physician and practice characteristics were associated with patient-reported experience of care in the major dimensions in family medicine in a fee-for-service system. The data came from the Swiss part of the Quality and Costs of Primary Care (QUALICOPC) study, an international cross-sectional survey. A random sample of 194 Swiss family physicians and 1540 of their patients were included in this analysis. We assessed patient experience using three scores characterising access, communication and continuity-coordination. Multilevel statistical methods were used to analyse these scores based on patient-level, physician-level and practice-level factors. Poor experience of access was associated with poor health (incidence rate ratio [IRR] 1.91, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.54-2.55) but was lower among older patients (IRR 0.75, 95% CI 0.63-0.88). Experience of access was also reported as poorer in urban areas and in practices including other paramedical professionals (besides medical assistants) (IRR 1.27, 95% CI 1.06-1.51). Communication was reported as poorer in practices where physicians achieve greater daily face-to-face consultations (IRR 1.16, 95% CI 1.08-1.25) and in patients reporting higher incomes (IRR 1.24, 95% CI 1.01-1.52). Additionally, younger patients reported poorer continuity-coordination experience. In the continuity-coordination domain, patient experience appeared better in group practices (including other family physicians) and in those of physicians with a greater weekly workload in terms of hours. Finally, we found experience of communication and continuity better in the French-speaking area than German-speaking area of Switzerland. In this study, we found that patient experience in family medicine in Switzerland was very good for all domains studied; access, family physician-patient communication and continuity-coordination of care. Most often, predictive factors of care experience relate to the patient's characteristics, such as age and health status. However, several practice characteristics such as size, composition and functioning (in particular, time spent with the patient) represent potential levers for improving patient-reported experience. The variations observed between the three linguistic areas in Switzerland are also interesting, since they raise the issue of the role of sociocultural factors in this field

Primary prevention of sexually transmitted infections in Switzerland: practices of family physicians and their determinants-a national cross-sectional survey.

To describe the activities of general practitioners (GPs) pertaining to primary prevention in the field of affective and sexual life, studying the advice they provide as well as their vaccination practices. Cross-sectional national survey. The study was carried out using the Swiss Primary Care Active Monitoring GPs' network, a national GP network created in 2012. One hundred and seventy Swiss GPs, from a random sample from professional lists stratified by canton, participated in the present study. Prevention practices against sexually transmitted infections (STIs) performed by GPs through advice provided as well as their vaccination practices. Predictive factor of these practices through their links with the doctors' relevant characteristics and their opinions about STI prevention. Approximately 80% consider prevention in the area of affective and sexual life to be part of their duty and discuss it easily with patients. Most of them spontaneously give advice regarding STIs during a routine consultation. Regarding human papillomavirus (HPV) immunisation in adults, almost half of GPs report never doing it, while almost 75% often or always immunise their adult patients against hepatitis B. Higher numbers of consultations per day are associated with vaccinating more adults against HPV (OR 1.13 (1.05 to 1.23)) and against hepatitis A (OR 1.17 (1.05 to 1.31)). Vaccinating children against hepatitis B is associated with practising in rural areas (OR 4.64 (1.20 to 17.98)). GPs practising in the French-speaking region of Switzerland immunise children less against HPV (OR 0.40 (0.20 to 0.80)). Longer consultations are associated with providing advice on affective and sexual life during a first consultation (OR 1.08 (1.01 to 1.14)). Swiss GPs are involved in primary prevention against STIs and consider it as their responsibility. Prevention practices are associated with GPs' favourable opinions on prevention

How do Swiss general practitioners agree with and report adhering to a top-five list of unnecessary tests and treatments? Results of a cross-sectional survey.

In 2014, the 'Smarter Medicine' campaign released a top five list of unnecessary tests and treatments in Swiss primary care, such as imaging for acute low-back pain and long-term prescribing of proton pump inhibitors. Measure general practitioners' (GPs) agreement with the recommendations and self-reported adherence. Cross-sectional, online survey of GPs in the 'Swiss primary care active monitoring' (SPAM) network, which assessed awareness of 'Smarter Medicine' and views on each recommendation. Questions included whether the clinical situation is common, whether the recommendation is followed, whether GPs agree with the recommendation and reasons why the recommendation would not be followed. One-hundred-and-sixty-seven of 277 GPs from the SPAM network participated (60%), of which 104 (62%) knew of 'Smarter Medicine', including 79% in German areas, 49% in French areas and 38% in Italian areas (P < 0.001). Agreement with the five recommendations was high, with scores around nine out of 10. The proportion saying they typically follow each recommendation was 68 to 74%, except not continuing long-term PPI prescriptions without attempting dose reduction, with only 34%. Common reasons for not following the recommendations were patient or other provider requests and situations that might suggest the need for more aggressive care. Two years after the launch of the campaign, awareness and acceptance of 'Smarter Medicine' appear to be high among Swiss GPs. By self-report, the recommendations are adhered to by most of the respondents but there may be room for improvement, especially for long-term PPI prescriptions

A structural equation model of the family physicians attitude towards their role in prevention: a cross-sectional study in Switzerland.

In contrast to many studies exploring barriers to preventive care in family medicine, there is less quantitative research regarding the self-perceived role of family physicians (FPs) in prevention and its predictive factors. Moreover, the existing studies considered this attitude as a homogeneous entity. The objective of this study is firstly, to characterize FPs' attitudes towards prevention taking into account nine different prevention themes, and secondly, to explore the factors that could be predictive of this attitude. The data stem from a cross-sectional national survey on prevention we conducted in Switzerland from 2015 to 2016 (170 physicians randomly drawn, online questionnaire). We first performed a confirmatory factor analysis to define a homogeneous latent variable regarding physicians' attitude towards prevention, then, a structural equation modeling to identify potential predictors. The FP' attitude towards their role in preventive care was homogeneously positive whatever the topic (smoking, drinking dietary habits, physical activities, and more generally, cardiovascular risk factors) except for occupational risks and cannabis consumption. A feeling of good effectiveness was a positive predictor of this positive attitude while seniority, the lack of reimbursement and being a physician from the German-speaking area were negative predictors. The FP' attitude about their role in prevention is homogeneous concerning the 'classical' topics of prevention, whereas they still under-recognize certain topics as important fields for prevention. To change this situation, we probably need a global effort to introduce other ways of thinking about prevention, including not only FP but also all stakeholders

Communication, continuity and coordination of care are the most important patients' values for family medicine in a fee-for-services health system.

Representing 60% of medical consultations in Switzerland, primary care holds an important place in our medical system. Patients' values in family medicine (FM) are nowadays recognized as important factors to take into account in order to provide good quality of care. The aim of this study is to describe patients' most important values regarding FM and to assess their associations with socio-demographics factors in a fee-for-services health system. We analyzed the Swiss 2012 study on Quality and Costs of Primary Care (QUALICOPC). Two-hundred patients, randomly drawn, answered a questionnaire about their values regarding FM just after their consultation. Explored values were related to communication and patient-centeredness care, continuity and coordination, care access, and patients' activation. We described values reaching more than 50% of "very important". Then, multivariate analyses were performed for the most important value of each dimension. Items related to "communication and patient-centeredness care" and "coordination and continuity of care" are the most recurrently mentioned as "very important". Items related to access and patients' activation are generally declared as "very important" by less than 50% of patients. Whatever the domain and the item, women systematically grant items more often as "very important" than men. Variations are observed according to the age, and the presence or not of a chronic disease. Such dimensions should be subject to a special attention by general practitioners and public health authorities as it might enhance the quality of care and the patients' satisfaction

Coping better with health problems after a visit to the family physician: associations with patients and physicians characteristics.

Good patient experience is recognized as an important component of a strong primary care system. Among the dimensions related to experience in family medicine, the ability to cope better with health problems is considered to be a measure of the quality of a consultation with a family physician (FP). The objective is to identify factors related to patients, physicians and practice, associated with patients' ability to cope better with their health problems after a family medicine consultation. The data stemmed from the Swiss part of the Quality and Costs of Primary Care (QUALICOPC) study, an international cross sectional survey aiming to compare quality, cost and equity in primary care. In Switzerland, a random sample of 199 FPs and 1791 patients participated. The negative answer to the question: "After this visit, I feel I can cope better with my health problems" was modeled using multilevel logistic regressions. Difficulty to cope better with health problems was positively associated with the following: younger age (OR: 1.58, 95% CI [1.03-2.41]), cultural aspects related to the Swiss area of language (French speaking people declared higher inability than German and Italian ones), presence of chronic disease (OR: 1.54 95% CI [1.00-2.39]). Conversely an intermediate number (1-4) of visits during the last 6 months (OR: 0.37 95% CI [0.23-0.62]) and the satisfaction with the physician (OR: 0.18 95% CI [0.08-0.44]) are negative predictors of the patient inability to cope better with his health problems. A self-reported effort-reward imbalance at work (OR: 0.64 95% CI [0.41-1.00]) was the only predictive FP characteristic (negatively associated). Although the design of the study does not allow causal inference, this study showed that the predictors of patient difficulties to cope better with health problem are mainly centered on the patients' characteristics. The patient-physician relationship both in terms of quality and frequency of visits is probably also important. Organizational practice characteristics do not seem to play a major role but stress at work among physicians should be further investigated

Protocol for an implementation and realist evaluation of a new organisational model for primary care practices in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland.

Continuity of care, especially for patients with complex needs, is a major challenge for healthcare systems in many high-income countries, including Switzerland. Since 2015, a collaborative project between Unisanté-Department of Family Medicine (DMF), some general practitioners (GPs) and canton of Vaud's public health authorities has sought to develop a new organisational model for the provision of primary care to ensure better care coordination and to provide adapted care deliveries to patients' healthcare needs. The model's main component is the addition of a primary care nurse to GPs practices. Three additional tools are individualised patient care plans, electronic medical records and patient empanelment. To assess this model, a 2-year pilot study has begun in nine GPs' practices in the canton. This paper presents the protocol for an evaluation of the implementation and effectiveness of the new organisational model. We will conduct a before-and-after study using a mixed-methods and a realist approach. First, we will use quantitative and qualitative data to assess the new organisational model's implementation (feasibility, fidelity, acceptability and costs) and effectiveness (healthcare services use, patient experience, staff experience and patient-level costs). Combining this data with focus group data will enable a realist evaluation of the pilot project, which will help understand the elements of context and mechanism that affect implementation. The evaluation will inform the canton of Vaud's health authorities about the limits of and perspectives for this organisational model. All results will also be made available to the practices and the patients involved. At the end of the project, we will propose organisational adaptations and a sustainable financial model for extending the model to other practices in the canton and potentially to the national level.The canton of Vaud's Human Research Ethics Committee approved the study, and Data Protection and Information Law Authority gave a favourable opinion concerning data processing procedures

Associations between primary care practice type and patient-reported access.

We recently defined a global typology of primary care (PC) in Switzerland using a mixed inductive/deductive approach to construct latent, composite variables that summarize variance between practices. Now we explore associations between the primary variable that describes the comprehensiveness of services and patient-perceived access to PC in Switzerland. Cross-sectional surveys were administered to physicians from the Swiss PC Active Monitoring (SPAM) network and their patients. The primary outcomes were patient responses to: "Was it easy to get the appointment?", "The opening hours are too restricted" and "In the past 12 months, did you postpone or abstain from a visit to this doctor or another GP when you needed one?" Multivariate, multilevel analyses with stepwise regression were used to assess associations between practice type (practices with a broader range of services have higher scores) and perceived access, controlling for patient characteristics. One hundred and ninety nine of 200 PC physicians in the network completed the questionnaire. Of 2628 patients approached after a physician visit, 1791 accepted (participation = 76%), with 9 patients at each practice. No association was observed between comprehensiveness of services and difficulty getting an appointment. When controlling for patient factors, there was a weak association between higher scores for comprehensiveness of services and patients reporting that the opening hours are too restricted (p = 0.05), though this was no longer significant after controlling for language area. Greater comprehensiveness of services was associated with fewer patients needing to postpone visits (OR 0.93, 95%CI 0.88-0.99, p = 0.03). Though fewer patients report needing to postpone visits at practices with more comprehensive offering of services, there is limited evidence of associations between patient-reported access and a global typology of Swiss primary care

May direct-to-consumer genetic testing have an impact on general practitioners' daily practice? a cross-sectional study of patients' intentions towards this approach.

Direct-to-consumer genetic testing (DTCGT) offers individuals access to information on their probable risks of suffering from a wide range of chronic diseases. General practitioners (GPs) will probably play a major role in supporting its use, but patients' perception of DTCGT remain unclear. This study aimed to describe those attitudes and expectations and how they might affect GPs' daily practices. In 2018-2019, a study related to the use of DTCGT for preventive care in general medicine was conducted among patients in Switzerland's French-speaking areas. Data were collected in the waiting room using a self-administrated questionnaire about patients' interest in DTCGT and what their attitudes might be if testing revealed an elevated risk of diabetes, colorectal cancer, or Alzheimer's disease. About 40% of the 929 participating (participation rate about 80%) patients had heard about DTCGT and, once the test had been explained, 43% reported that they would be interested in being tested. If that testing suggested an elevated risk of disease, the majority of patients reported that they would change their lifestyle (65%-81%, depending on the disease), request more examinations (63%-77%), and expect changes in their GP's follow-up (48%-59%). Personal characteristics such as sex, age, urbanity, marital status, and perceived health were factors predictive of patients' attitudes. Findings indicated that the generalization of DTCGT might affect GPs' daily practices in terms of workload and knowledge about this approach. However, this result must be qualified by the fact that it is based on hypothetical situations