Multidisciplinary Team Care Arrangements in the management of patients with chronic disease in Australian general practice
Diana Gosálvez Prados
— last modified 20/05/2011 12:03
Objective: To explore factors associated with the frequency of multidisciplinary Team Care Arrangements (TCAs) and the impact of TCAs on patient-assessed quality of care in Australian general practice.
Harris MF, Jayasinghe UW, Taggart JR, Christl B, Proudfoot JG, Crookes PA, Beilby JJ, Davies GP. Multidisciplinary Team Care Arrangements in the management of patients with chronic disease in Australian general practice. Medical Journal of Australia. 2011; 194(5):236-239. Available at: http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/194_05_070311/har10630_fm.html
20/05/2011
Design and setting: Data were collected as part of a cluster randomised controlled trial conducted in 60 general practices in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria between July 2006 and June 2008. Multilevel logistic regression analysis evaluated factors associated with the frequency of TCAs recorded in the 12 months after baseline, and multilevel multivariable analysis examined the association between TCAs and patient-assessed quality of chronic illness care, adjusted for patient and practice characteristics.
Main outcome measures:
Frequency of TCAs; Patient Assessment of Chronic Illness Care (PACIC) scores.
Results: Of 1752 patients with clinical audit data available at 12-month follow-up, 398 (22.7%) had a TCA put in place since baseline. Women, patients with two or more chronic conditions, and patients from metropolitan areas had an increased probability of having a TCA. There was an association between TCAs and practices with solo general practitioners and those with greater levels of teamwork involving non-GP staff for the control group but not the intervention group. Patients who had a TCA self-assessed their quality of care (measured by PACIC scores) to be higher than those who did not.
Medical Journal of Australia
Asia
