To measure both outcomes ('how' and 'what') from the videotaped consultations we used the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS) [ 15, 16].
To analyse consultation length, we used a multilevel model with three levels: contacts (1), GPs (2) and practices (3).
38 For outcomes measured using differing methods or when there was likely to be variation owing to the clinical context (for example, consultation length), we used the standardised mean differences.
Pulmonary tuberculosis patients carried out 4 smear tests, 4 chest radiographs, and nursing and physician consultations during hospitalization; we used these parameters to estimate the costs of inpatient assistance in the ambulatory, following the Brazilian recommendations for treatment [ 24].
Assuming that, during the hospitalization (30 days), 4 AFB smear tests, 4 chest radiographs, 30 nurse and physician consultations were performed, we used these parameters to estimated the costs of inpatient assistance in hospital, following the Brazilian recommendations for treatment [ 21].
PNs will be given a reasonable degree of freedom in applying the detection method in their consultations, as we use a pragmatic approach without strict internal controls.
Follow-up ended with patients' last consultation date, unless this date was more than two years later than the penultimate consultation, in which case we used the contact date instead.
In this study, instead of using the consultation rate of probable cases of HFMD, we used the consultation rate of parent-defined HFMD cases to adjust for the number of probable cases of HFMD.
In our present study, we used consultation rates from the HSE, which are self-reported and may be an underestimate [ 6, 24, 25].
Experience has shown that gradations in levels of perceived probabilities correspond more to a logarithmic than linear scale (24), and in the expert consultation for InterVA-4, we used a perceived probability scale that was subsequently converted to numbers on a logarithmic scale as shown in Table 1.
We used the consultation fee to differentiate between a visit with physician consultation and visits merely for radiology, laboratory examinations, physical rehabilitation, or other ancillary services.
