To contribute to the current knowledge on how a broad range of services offered by general practitioners (s) may contribute to the patient perceived quality and, hence, the potential benefits of primary care.
Between 2011 and 2013, primary care data were collected among s and their patients in 31 European countries, plus Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. In these countries, s are the main providers of primary care, mostly specialized in family medicine and working in the ambulatory setting.
In this cross‐sectional study, questionnaires were completed by 7,183 s and 61,931 visiting patients. Moreover, 7,270 patients answered questions about what they find important (their values). In the analyses of patient experiences, we adjusted for patients’ values in each country to measure patient perceived quality. Perceived quality was measured regarding five areas: accessibility and continuity of care, doctor–patient communication, patient involvement in decision making, and comprehensiveness of care. The range of services was measured in relation to four areas: (1) to what extent they are the first contact to the health care system for patients in need of care, (2) their involvement in treatment and follow‐up of acute and chronic conditions, in other words treatment of diseases, (3) their involvement in minor technical procedures, and (4) their involvement in preventive treatments.
Data of the patients were linked to the data of the s. Multilevel modeling was used to construct scale scores for the experiences of patients in the five areas of quality and the range of services of s. In these four‐level models, items were nested within patients, nested in practices, nested in countries. The relationship between the range of services and the experiences of patients was analyzed in three‐level multilevel models, also taking into account the values of patients.
In countries where s offer a broader range of services patients perceive better accessibility, continuity, and comprehensiveness of care, and more involvement in decision making. No associations were found between the range of services and the patient perceived communication with their . The range of services mostly explained the variation between countries in the areas of patient perceived accessibility and continuity of care.
This study showed that in countries where practices serve as a “one‐stop shop,” patients perceive better quality of care, especially in the areas of accessibility and continuity of care. Therefore, primary care in a country is expected to benefit from investments in a broader range of services of s or other primary care physicians.
