Also in consultations provided to physicians (many being GPs) by palliative care consultation teams physical problems were the discussed topic in 77% of consultations [ 12], while aspects of spiritual care played a role in only 8% of consultations [ 44].
In the model, the healthcare utilisation endpoint is mostly mutually exclusive, i.e. if the patient is hospitalised, costs for previous consultations to the physician for the DRP are not considered and for long-term care, no prior hospitalisation or physician visit is included.
Finally, the new system did not decrease the number of office or phone consultations reimbursed to physicians.
The model consists of risk stratifying a CKD population and providing unsolicited nephrologist consultations to primary care physicians regarding individual patients, enabled by an integrated electronic health record (EHR).
All participants wanted the physician to be well acquainted with the child's individual situation, and therefore preferred continuity of care, i.e. they preferred consultations to be with the same physician during the entire course of treatment.
At the same time, the mounting use of computers and electronic patient files during the consultation creates a challenge to physicians in maintaining consistent eye contact with their patient [ 26, 27].
They found a significant reduction in the seriousness of the symptoms, in the number of consultation to the family physicians (not in the visits to the specialist), reduction in number of drug (prescriptions) and in the number of days on sickness absence.
In local hospitals, where most of the medical care is delivered by a general pediatrician with little experience and training in managing sick newborn infants and no medical consultation to support them, physicians require the training in stabilization that ACoRN offers.
Importantly, the model is capable of estimating the contribution of influenza virus infection to physicians' ILI consultation incidence while controlling for the effects of RSV on the dependent variable (i.e. weekly ILI rate).
If additional studies confirm these findings, increased use of VCs may decrease the need for face-to-face specialty encounters without a decrease in the patient's perception in the quality of care, patient or referring physician satisfaction, with a quicker delivery of useful information to physicians requesting consultation.
