Evaluation of primary care in a community clinic by means of explicit process criteria.

This study reports an evaluation of care given at an urban multidisciplinary community family practice clinic. By means of an "indicator-condition" approach, the criteria and rating system developed for the Burlington Randomized Controlled Trial (BRCT) were applied to 103 randomly selected charts demonstrating 124 episodes of care given for seven specific "conditions": otitis media, hypertension, prenatal care, care of the newborn up to the age of 12 months, immunization up to the age of 24 months, depression and urinary tract infection. Overall, 83 (67%) of the episodes of care studied were rated adequate or superior. The proportion of such episodes varied from 33% for hypertension to 81% for care of the newborn. No statistically significant differences were found between these results and those of the BRCT. A total of 48 instances of inadequate care were noted, of which 21 (44%) were omissions in patient management. Inadequate preventive care and care of chronic diseases was more common than inadequate care of acute infectious diseases. The method of primary care assessment used was found to be both practical and inexpensive.

RCT Entities:   Population Interventions Outcomes