Background: Digital applications that automatically extract information from electronic medical records and provide comparative visualizations of the data in the form of quality indicators to primary care practices may facilitate local quality improvement (QI). A necessary condition for such QI to work is that practices actively access the data. The purpose of this study was to explore the use of an application that visualizes quality indicators in Swedish primary care, developed by a profession-led QI initiative (“Primärvårdskvalitet”). We also describe the characteristics of practices that used the application more or less extensively, and the relationships between the intensity of use and changes in selected performance indicators. Methods: We studied longitudinal data on 122 primary care practices’ visits to pages (page views) in the application over a period up to 5 years. We compared high and low users, classified by the average number of monthly page views, with respect to practice and patient characteristics as well as baseline measurements of a subset of the performance indicators. We estimated linear associations between visits to pages with diabetes-related indicators and the change in measurements of selected diabetes indicators over 1.5 years. Results: Less than half of all practices accessed the data in a given month, although most practices accessed the data during at least one third of the observed months. High and low users were similar in terms of most studied characteristics. We found statistically significant positive associations between use of the diabetes indicators and changes in measurements of three diabetes indicators. Conclusions: Although most practices in this study indicated an interest in the automated feedback reports, the intensity of use can be described as varying and on average limited. The positive associations between the use and changes in performance suggest that policymakers should increase their support of practices’ QI efforts. Such support may include providing a formalized structure for peer group discussions of data, facilitating both understanding of the data and possible action points to improve performance, while maintaining a profession-led use of applications.

Background: High quality primary care is expected to be the basis of many health care systems. Expectations on primary care are rising as societies age and the burden of chronic disease grows. To stimulate adherence to guidelines and quality improvement, audit and feedback to professionals is often used, but the effects vary. Even with carefully designed audit and feedback practices, barriers related to contextual conditions may prevent quality improvement efforts. The purpose of this study was to explore how professionals and health centre managers in Swedish primary care experience existing forms of audit and feedback, and conditions and barriers for quality improvement, and to explore views on the future use of clinical performance data for quality improvement.

Methods: We used an explorative qualitative design. Focus groups were conducted with health centre managers, physicians and other health professionals at seven health centres. The interviews were audio recorded, transcribed and analysed using qualitative content analysis.

Results: Four different types of audit and feedback that regularly occurred at the health centres were identified. The main part of the audit and feedback was “external”, from the regional purchasers and funders, and from the owners of the health centres. This audit and feedback focused on non-clinical measures such as revenues, utilisation of resources, and the volume of production. The participants in our study did not perceive that existing audit and feedback practices contributed to improved quality in general. This, along with lack of time for quality improvement, lack of autonomy and lack of quality improvement initiatives at the system (macro) level, were considered barriers to quality improvement at the health centres.

Conclusions: Professionals and health centre managers did not experience audit and feedback practices and existing conditions in Swedish primary care as supportive of quality improvement work. From a professional perspective, audit and feedback with a focus on clinical measures, as well as autonomy for professionals, are necessary to create motivation and space for quality improvement work. Such initiatives also need to be supported by quality improvement efforts at the system (macro) level, which favour transformation to a primary care based system.

Background: Values are deeply held views that act as guiding beliefs for individuals and organizations. They state what is important in a profession. The aims of this study were to determine whether European countries have already developed (or are developing) documents on core values in family medicine; to gather the lists of core values already developed in countries; and to gather the opinions of participants on what the core family values in their countries are.

Methods: This was a qualitative study. The questionnaire was distributed as an e-survey via email to present and former members of the European Society for Quality and Safety in Family Practice (EQuiP), and other family medicine experts in Europe. The questionnaire included six items concerning core values in family medicine in the respondent's country: the process of defining core values, present core values, the respondents' suggestions for core values, and current challenges of core values.

Results: Core values in family medicine were defined or in a process of being defined in several European countries. The most common core values already defined were the doctor-patient relationship, continuity, comprehensiveness and holistic care, community orientation, and professionalism. Some countries expressed the need for an update of the current core values' list. Most respondents felt the core values of their discipline were challenged in today's world. The main values challenged were continuity, patient-centered care/the doctor-patient relationship and comprehensive and holistic care, but also prioritization, equity, and community orientation and cooperation. These were challenged by digital health, workload/lack of family physicians, fragmentation of care, interdisciplinary care, and societal trends and commercial interests.

Conclusion: We managed to identify suggestions for core values of family medicine at the European level. There is a clear need to adopt a definition of a value and tailor the discussion and actions on the family medicine core values accordingly. There is also a need to identify the core values of family medicine in European countries. This could strengthen the profession, promote its development and research, improve education, and help European countries to advocate for the profession.

The majority of patients with a distal radius fracture (DRF) are elderly, a group known to experience difficulties with new technology, partly due to a low level of digital literacy. At the beginning of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, during the spring 2020, patients that underwent DRF surgery had regular follow-ups replaced by video calls from their surgeon and physiotherapist. Afterward, patients answered questionnaires regarding health and digital literacy and took part in semistructured interviews regarding the experience of the virtual follow-up. By systemic text condensation, 2 major categories were identified: (1) The video call-new, but surprisingly simple: All but 1 found it easier than expected, and (2) Video calls-the patient's choice: All but 1 patient preferred video calls to physical visits for follow-up. This is the first mixed methods study to assess patients' experiences of digital follow-up after DRF surgery. This study indicates that digital follow-up was highly appreciated, even among patients with low levels of digital literacy. Digital technologies must be made suitable even for patients with inadequate levels of digital literacy.

Objective

To analyze changes in primary care utilization as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Swedish national register data from 2019 to 2020 on utilization of services were used to compare overall utilization levels and across types of contacts and patient groups. A specific objective was to assess the extent to which remote types of patient consultations were able to compensate for any observed fall in on-site visits. Data were stratified by sex and age to investigate any demographic pattern.

Results

Findings show significant reductions in overall utilization of services as the pandemic occurred in the first quarter of 2020. On-site visits fell during the first wave of the pandemic and rebounded thereafter. Patients over 65 years of age appear to have reduced utilization to a larger extent compared with younger groups. Simultaneously, remote contacts increased from around 12% before the pandemic to 17% of the total number of consultations. However, the net effect of changes in service utilization suggests an overall reduction of around 12 percent in the number of primary care consultations as a result of the pandemic. No differences between men and women were observed. Further research will continue to monitor changes in primary care utilization as the pandemic continues.

In Swedish primary care patients are registered at health centres where different professions, such as general practitioners (GPs), nurses, assistant nurses, counsellors, physiotherapists, psychologists and biomedical analysts, work.

In an international comparison personal physician continuity is low in Sweden. Several governmental inquiries propose that patients register with one GP or a care team. Do Swedish GPs want a personal patient list and how should this best be realised? A web survey was distributed to the members of the Swedish Union of General Practitioners and was answered by 838 GPs. 91% wanted a personal patient list if reasonably sized, the option to limit their list, and shared responsibility for the list with colleagues or a team. To be able to plan the working day themselves and designated time for collegial dialogue was considered essential for increased efficiency, well-being and reduced risk of patients harm due to their doctor’s knowledge gaps.

Background: The growing use of digital primary care consultations has led to concerns about resource use, equity and quality. One of these is how it affects antibiotic prescription. Differences in ease of access for patients and available diagnostic information for the prescribing physicians are reasons to believe prescription rates may be affected. Objectives: We estimated differences in antibiotic prescription between traditional office-based and digital contacts, if these differences varied between groups of diagnoses depending on the availability of information for the prescribing physician, and if differences were associated with socio-demographic patient characteristics. Methods: Using individual level register data for a sample of patients diagnosed with an infection over a two-year period, we estimated differences in prescription between the two types of contacts and applied propensity score techniques to mitigate possible problems with treatment selection bias. Results: The share of antibiotic prescription was 28 (95% CI 27–30, p < 0.001) to 33 (95% CI 29–36, p < 0.001) percentage points lower among digital contacts as compared to office-based contacts. For urinary tract infections, the differences in prescription rates between the two contact types were smaller (34 to 41 percentage points difference) than for throat and skin infections (50 to 60 percentage points difference). For women, rural, older, and people born outside Sweden, digital contacts were associated with higher prescription rates. Conclusions: Antibiotic prescription rates were significantly lower for digital contacts compared with office-based contacts. The findings suggest that digital primary care may be an effective alternative to in-person visits without undue consequences for antibiotic prescription levels, although to varying degree depending on diagnosis.

INTRODUCTION: The ability to provide primary care with the help of a digital platform raises both opportunities and risks. While access to primary care improves, overuse of services and medication may occur. The use of digital care technologies is likely to continue to increase and evidence of its effects, costs and distributional impacts is needed to support policy-making. Since 2016, the number of digital primary care consultations for a range of conditions has increased rapidly in Sweden. This research project aims to investigate health system effects of this development. The overall research question is to what extent such care is a cost-effective and equitable alternative to traditional, in-office primary care in the context of a publicly funded health system with universal access. Three specific areas of investigation are identified: clinical effect; cost and distributional impact. This protocol describes the investigative approach of the project in terms of aims, design, materials, methods and expected results.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The research project adopts a retrospective study design and aims to apply statistical analyses of patient-level register data on key variables from seven regions of Sweden over the years 2017-2018. In addition to data on three common infectious conditions (upper respiratory tract infection; lower urinary tract infection; and skin and soft-tissue infection), information on other healthcare use, socioeconomic status and demography will be collected.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This registry-based study has received ethical approval by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority. Use of data will follow the Swedish legislation and practice with regards to consent. The results will be disseminated both to the research community, healthcare decision makers and to the general public.