Characteristics of general practitioners that provided health assessments, care plans or case conferences, as part of the Enhanced Primary Care program

Abstract

We aimed to describe the characteristics of general practitioners (GPs) who provided health assessments (HA), care plans (CP) or case conferences (CC) as part of the Enhanced Primary Care (EPC) program between November 1999 and October 2001.While the gender distribution of EPC-active GPs is similar to that of non-EPC-active GPs, EPC-active GPs tend to be younger (72% vs 58% aged 35-54 years). Among EPC-active GPs, males account for about 66% of providers and about 80%of services. There is a very wide range in the number of EPC services provided per GP. In all, 1591 (14%)have rendered a single service while 919 (8.1%)have rendered over 100 services each (accounting for almost half of all EPC activity in Australia). The number of GPs providing any EPC service each month gradually increased to around 5000 in October 2001.Most patients (80-90%)that received multiple EPC services did so from the same GP. Across Divisions of General Practice the proportion of practices registered for the Practice Incentive Program (PIP) that have provided EPC services ranges from 100 to 0%. In the first year at least 50% of all practices in 84 Divisions rendered at least one EPC service while in the second year 108 did. Across Australia 58% of PIP practices rendered at least one service in the first year and 76% did in the second year. A little over half the GP workforce rendered at least one EPC service in the first year of the program, but there was a very wide range in the number of services provided per GP. Most GPs provide very few and a small number provide very many. There is wide variation in the proportion of practices providing EPC services, but this is increasing.