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Primary Care

Primary care providers are often the first point of contact for patients attempting to navigate a complex health care delivery system and seeking referrals to specialists. RAND has explored the increasing use of emergency departments as a primary care setting, the influence of primary care on health care spending, shared decisionmaking between patients and primary care providers, the emergence of retail health clinics, and more.

Journal Article
Poor Self-rated Mental Health and Medicare Beneficiaries' Routine Care-Seeking
This cross-sectional study assessed the relationship between self-rated mental health (SRMH) and infrequent routine care among Medicare beneficiaries and investigated the roles of managed care and having a personal doctor.
Nov 8, 2022
Report
A Scoping Review of Guidelines and Quality Measures to Screen for Social and Caregiver Support and Cognitive Impairment in Primary Care
The authors conduct a review to identify measures, guidelines, and tools that (1) assess social support, the need for caregiver support, and the need for referral to social services and (2) screen for cognitive impairment among high-risk patients.
Nov 2, 2022
Journal Article
Using CAHPS Patient Experience Data for Patient-Centered Medical Home Transformation
We interviewed 105 practice leaders from 294 sampled practices and used content analysis to identify themes about uses of patient experience data for practice improvement during PCMH transformation.
Oct 27, 2022
Report
Managing Urinary Incontinence for Women in Primary Care: Environmental Scan (Base Year)
The authors of this report present an environmental scan of studies that assess the dissemination and implementation of nonsurgical urinary incontinence treatments for women in primary care.
Oct 20, 2022
Journal Article
Empirically Identified Networks of Healthcare Providers for Adults with Mental Illness
We develop new measures for care coordination between primary care and psychiatric care specifically for individuals living with serious mental illness.
Aug 17, 2022
Journal Article
Impact of Telephone Triage on Access to Primary Care for People Living with Multiple Long-Term Health Conditions: Rapid Evaluation
We aimed to evaluate whether or not the increased use of telephone triage would affect access to primary care differently for people living with multimorbidity than for other patients.
Aug 12, 2022
Journal Article
Digital Facilitation to Support Patient Access to Web-Based Primary Care Services: Scoping Literature Review
This study aimed to identify, characterize, and differentiate between different approaches to digital facilitation in primary care, establish what is known about the effectiveness of different approaches, and understand the enablers of digital facilitation.
Jul 19, 2022
Journal Article
Clinical Pathway for Suicide Risk Screening in Adult Primary Care Settings: Special Recommendations
This paper describes a clinical suicide risk screening pathway for adult primary care practices. We also provide guidance to aid primary care practices in their decisions about how to implement the clinical pathway.
Jun 22, 2022
Journal Article
The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Policy Response on Health Care Utilization: Evidence from County-Level Medical Claims and Cellphone Data
Shelter-in-place policies during the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with reductions in the use of preventive care, elective care, and the number of weekly visits to physician offices, hospitals and other health care-related industries.
Mar 31, 2022
News Release
Audio-Only Telehealth Remains Common at Safety Net Health Clinics; Trend Raises Questions About Quality
Rapid adoption of telehealth helped safety net clinics in California to maintain consistent levels of service after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the use of audio-only care has persisted in the clinics longer than in other types of health care settings.
Mar 15, 2022
Report
Audio-Only Telehealth Remains Common at Safety Net Clinics; Raises Questions About Quality
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, rapid adoption of telehealth helped safety net clinics in California maintain service. But the use of audio-only care has persisted in the clinics, raising questions about the quality of care and equity for low-income patients.
Mar 14, 2022
Journal Article
Physician Compensation Arrangements and Financial Performance Incentives in US Health Systems
This study was a cross-sectional mixed-methods analysis of in-depth multimodal data from 31 POs affiliated with 22 purposefully selected health systems in 4 states. Data were analyzed from June 2019 to September 2020.
Feb 8, 2022
Journal Article
Vertical Integration of Primary Care Practices with Acute Hospitals in England and Wales: Why, How and So What? Findings from a Qualitative, Rapid Evaluation
Qualitative evaluation at two locations in England and one in Wales of where acute hospitals have taken on the running of primary care medical practices.
Jan 12, 2022
Journal Article
Early Development of Primary Care Networks in the NHS in England: A Qualitative Mixed-Methods Evaluation
Primary care networks were introduced to improve care and help address sustainability issues in general practice. The purpose of this study was to collect early evidence on their implementation and development.
Jan 5, 2022
Journal Article
Physician Compensation In Physician-Owned And Hospital-Owned Practices
Vertical integration of physician practices with hospitals or health systems was associated with lower income for nonsurgical specialists, no difference in income for primary care physicians, and slightly higher income for surgical specialists.
Dec 10, 2021
Journal Article
Tiered Cost-Sharing for Primary Care Gatekeeper Clinics
We analyze data from a long-standing tiered cost-sharing system for primary care gatekeeper clinics. We find that when choosing a primary care clinic, consumers are responsive to the clinic's tier.
Sep 9, 2021
Report
Health Services and Primary Care Research Study: Comprehensive Report
This report provides an independent assessment of the breadth, scope, and impact of health services and primary care research funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs from FYs 2012 to 2018.
Jul 19, 2021
Blog
Veteran Journeys: Where Mental Health Research Meets Opera
Kenneth Wells, a psychiatrist, librettist, and composer, has written a documentary disguised as an opera. He drew on Partners in Care, a 10-year RAND-UCLA study that was one of the first to use a multisite collaborative primary care approach to treat veterans and others experiencing depression.
Jul 6, 2021
Multimedia
Digital Technologies to Improve Health and Care
John Campbell, professor of general practice and primary care at the University of Exeter, and Brandi Leach, senior analyst at RAND Europe, discuss how primary care practices can support patients' use of digital services.
Jun 18, 2021
Journal Article
Provider and Coach Perspectives on Implementing Shadow Coaching to Improve Provider-Patient Interactions
We aimed to characterize lessons and barriers to implementing shadow coaching as a mechanism to improve interactions with patients and change organizational culture.
May 21, 2021

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RAND Topic:
Primary Care

Research conducted by

RAND Health Care