Where the development of understanding about conditions and goals occurs over a period of time, rather than being confined to discrete "care plan" consultations, continuity and being able to see the provider of choice when required are likely to be more important factors in the successful implementation of care planning approaches [ 29].
No diseases, no consultation fee! Continuity means that a patient has a sustaining relationship with his or her primary care physician.
The first category concerned the doctors, i.e. their competence, interpersonal skills, time spent with patients in consultation, and continuity of care.
They confided that consultation style, continuity of care and a tailored or individualized approach may have an important impact on their self-confidence and on their ability to cope with the strains of illness [ 10, 11].
Patients were asked to rate, on a four-point Likert scale, their agreement with statements about 15 aspects of follow-up covering service delivery, the consultation and continuity of care (Table 2).
Consultation length and continuity of care (knowing the doctor well) were not related to enablement in the current study.
Previous work did find a weak positive association between enablement and consultation length and continuity of care [ 2].
Consultation length and continuity of care may need to be substantially enhanced in order to enable such patients.
System factors (which may arguably include consultation length and continuity of care) also indicate that practice size may be important, with larger practices having lower enablement scores [ 3].
Consultation length and continuity of care emerged as the two key 'structural' factors that were intimately associated with patients accounts of quality reported above.
