Skip to page content

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
A Positive Deviance Approach to Understanding Key Features to Improving Diabetes Care in the Medical Home
The medical home has gained national attention as a model to reorganize primary care to improve health outcomes. Pennsylvania has undertaken one of the largest state-based, multipayer medical home pilot projects.
May 1, 2013
Journal Article
Grand Challenges: Integrating Mental Health Care Into the Non-Communicable Disease Agenda
Collaborative care models, where care for chronic disease and mental health care are integrated and provided in the primary care setting, benefit patients, strengthen health care systems, and reduce costs.
May 1, 2013
Journal Article
Insomnia: Can't Sleep, Can't Get Diagnosed
Insomnia is very common, but most of its sufferers don't receive a diagnosis or treatment. However, educating primary care providers and other professionals about insomnia can help.
Mar 1, 2013
Blog
Are You a 'Wise' Health Care Consumer?
To be wise purchasers of health care services, consumers need access to accurate and understandable information about health plans and providers. They wrongly assume that more expensive providers are better than less expensive ones, despite inconsistent evidence that there is any link between health care cost and quality.
Feb 5, 2013
News Release
Shared Decision Making Between Patients and Doctors Will Require Investment by Health Systems
Health care providers are encouraged to implement “shared decision making” in which patients and doctors together choose the treatment that is best for each patient. However, doctors need more instruction on how to engage patients and better information systems to make sure patients know their options and receive individualized care.
Feb 4, 2013
Journal Article
Effects of Medical Comorbidity on Anxiety Treatment Outcomes in Primary Care
Evaluates the effects of medical comorbidity on anxiety treatment outcomes.
Jan 1, 2013
Journal Article
Trajectories of Change in Anxiety Severity and Impairment During and After Treatment with Evidence-Based Treatment for Multiple Anxiety Disorders in Primary Care
This study aimed to identify (1) clusters of participants with similar patterns of change in anxiety severity and impairment (trajectory groups); and (2) characteristics that predict trajectory group membership.
Jan 1, 2013
Journal Article
Integrating Primary Care Into Community Behavioral Health Settings: Programs and Early Implementation Experiences
Describes the experiences of community behavioral health agencies that received PBHCI grants from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to integrate primary care into programs for adults with serious mental illness.
Jan 1, 2013
Journal Article
Incorporating Evidence Review Into Quality Improvement: Meeting the Needs of Innovators
Achieving quality improvement (QI) aims often requires local innovation.
Jan 1, 2013
Journal Article
Thirty-Seven Percent of U.S. Emergency Department Visits Are for Nonurgent Conditions
Patients' use of emergency departments (ED) for nonurgent conditions may lead to excessive health care spending, unnecessary testing and treatment, and weaker primary care relationships. These patients tend to be younger and may visit the ED due to a physician referral or for convenience.
Jan 1, 2013
Journal Article
Do We Really Need More Physicians? Responses to Predicted Primary Care Physician Shortages
Predicted primary care shortages have spurred action to increase the number of primary care physicians.
Jan 1, 2013
Journal Article
Response: Effectiveness in Primary Care Is Paramount, but Need Not Come at the Expense of Efficiency
Effective primary care is vital to sustainable provision of primary care for the US population.
Jan 1, 2013
Journal Article
Drivers of Overall Satisfaction with Primary Care: Evidence from the English General Patient Survey
We aim to identify those aspects of patient experience that show the strongest relationship with overall satisfaction and examine the extent to which these relationships vary by socio-demographic and health characteristics.
Jan 1, 2013
Journal Article
When a Whole Practice Model Is the Intervention: Developing Fidelity Evaluation Components Using Program Theory-Driven Science for an Integrative Medicine Primary Care Clinic
This paper provides a rationale for the use of practice theory and fidelity evaluation in studies of integrative practices and describes the approach and protocol used in fidelity evaluation of the University of Arizona Integrative Health Center.
Jan 1, 2013
Journal Article
Primary Care Providers' Initial Treatment Decisions and Antidepressant Prescribing for Adolescent Depression
This study examined the impact of symptom severity and provider characteristics on initial depression treatment decisions in a setting with fewer structural barriers, an integrated behavioral health network.
Jan 1, 2013
Journal Article
Implications of New Insurance Coverage for Access to Care, Cost-Sharing, and Reimbursement
Many physician practices will face a set of critical decisions in the coming years that may contribute to the ultimate success or failure of the ACA.
Jan 1, 2013
Journal Article
Diagnostic Overlap of Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder in a Primary Care Sample
This study addresses the symptom overlap of people meeting DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria for GAD, MDD, or both to investigate whether comorbidity might be explained by overlapping diagnostic criteria.
Dec 1, 2012
Research Brief
Providers Influence the Bulk of Health Care Spending in the U.S.
Providers can dramatically improve American health care by focusing on “value” instead of “volume,” eliminating wasteful and inappropriate care, applying the best available evidence to their practices, and enhancing patient safety.
Nov 15, 2012
News Release
Evidence About Whether Retail Medical Clinics Disrupt Doctor-Patient Relationships Is Mixed
People who visit retail medical clinics are less likely to return to a primary care physician for future illnesses and have less continuity of care. However, no evidence suggests that retail medical clinics disrupt preventive care or management of diabetes, two important measures of quality of primary care.
Oct 31, 2012
Journal Article
Development of and Field Test Results for the CAHPS PCMH Survey
This study provides support for the reliability and validity of new items to supplement the CG-CAHPS 1.0 Survey to assess aspects of primary care that are important attributes of PCMHs.
Oct 30, 2012

Previous
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Next

RAND Topic:
Primary Care

Research conducted by

RAND Health Care

Researcher Spotlight

Sangeeta C. Ahluwalia

Associate Research Department Director, Behavioral and Policy Sciences Department

Sangeeta Ahluwalia (she/her/hers) is associate research department director for the Behavioral and Policy Sciences Department and a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. She is also an adjunct associate professor of health policy at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.…
Lisa V. Rubenstein

Adjunct Physician Policy Researcher

Lisa V. Rubenstein is an adjunct physician policy researcher at the RAND Corporation and professor emeritus of medicine and public health at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She is a former Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar, past president of the Society of General Internal…

Explore Our People »