It's different in the bush, a comparison of general practice activity in metropolitan and rural areas of Australia 1998-2000

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General practice series no. 6

Gives a secondary analysis of data from the first two years of the BEACH (Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health) program, April 1998 to March 2000. It reports differences in rural and metropolitan general practice based on information on over 200,000 GP-patient encounters from a random sample of 2,014 GPs. Comparisons are made in terms of characteristics of the general practitioners; types of services they provide; characteristics of the patients; problems managed at the GP-patient encounters and the management techniques adopted by the GPs.

Authored by Britt H, Miller GC & Valenti L.

Published 5 March 2001; ISSN 1442 3022; ISBN-13 978 1 74024 099 4; AIHW cat. no. GEP 6; 107pp.; $17.00

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Full publication  (642K PDF)

  • Preliminary material (160K PDF)
    • Title page and verso
    • Foreword
    • Contents
    • List of tables and figures
    • Summary (separate 101K PDF)
    • Acknowledgments
    • Prologue
  • Chapters
    1. Introduction (169K PDF)
    2. Methods
      1. GP sampling.
      2. GP recruitment
      3. Data elements
      4. Statistical methods
      5. The BEACH relational database
      6. Classification of data
      7. Notes on the analyses in this report
    3. The GP sample
      1. Characteristics of the GPs by stratum
      2. Activity level by stratum
      3. Discussion
    4. The encounters
      1. Distribution of services by stratum
      2. Summary of morbidity and management by stratum
      3. Discussion
    5. The patients
      1. Patient characteristics by stratum
      2. Patient reasons for encounter by stratum
      3. Discussion
    6. Problems managed (138K PDF)
      1. Number of problems managed at encounter by stratum
      2. Problems managed (in ICPC-2 chapter groups) by stratum
      3. Most frequent individual problems managed by stratum
      4. Discussion
    7. Medications
      1. Rates of medications prescribed (in groups and sub-groups) by stratum
      2. Most frequently prescribed generic medications by stratum
      3. Discussion
    8. Other (non-pharmacological) treatments
      1. Clinical treatments by stratum
      2. Therapeutic procedures
      3. Discussion
    9. Referrals and admissions
      1. Referral rates to specialists and allied health professionals
      2. Problems referred to specialists
      3. Problems referred to allied health professionals
      4. Problems referred for hospital admission
    10. Test order (144K PDF)
      1. Pathology ordering by stratum
      2. Imaging orders by stratum
    11. Patient wellbeing and risk factors
      1. Background
      2. Patient-assessed wellbeing by stratum
      3. Patient body mass by stratum
      4. Patient smoking status by stratum
      5. Patient-reported alcohol consumption by stratum
    12. Level of computer usage in the practice
    13. After-hours arrangements of the practice
    14. Summary of differences between strata
    15. Discussion
      1. Methodological issues
    16. Conclusion (132K PDF)
      1. Current status of BEACH
      2. Access to the BEACH data
  • End matter
    • Glossary
    • Abbreviations
    • Appendixes (343K PDF)1
      • Appendix 1: Summary of the 1990-91 study of country and metropolitan general practice
      • Appendix 2: Example of a recording form used in 1998-99
      • Appendix 3: Example of a recording form used in 1999-2000
      • Appendix 4: GP characteristics questionnaire 1998-99
      • Appendix 5: GP characteristics questionnaire 1999-2000

Additional material

  • Appendix 6: Reasons for encounter and problems managed - code groups from ICPC- 2 and ICPC-2 PLUS used in this report (109K PDF)
  • Appendix 7: Clinical treatments - code groups from ICPC-2 PLUS used in this report
  • Appendix 8: Procedural treatments - code groups from ICPC-2 PLUS used in this report
  • Appendix 9: Referrals - code groups from ICPC-2 and ICPC-2 PLUS used in this report
  • Appendix 10: Pathology test orders - code groups from ICPC-2 and ICPC-2 PLUS used in this report
  • Appendix 11. Imaging test orders - code groups from ICPC-2 and ICPC-2 PLUS used in this report

Notes and corrections

  1. Appendixes 6-11 were not available as part of the printed copy.

 

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