Outcomes from GPs' Consultations

Abstract: Background and aims. Patients’ consultations with GPs can deal with a wide range of conditions and problems. Generally, consultation outcomes have been considered in evaluations but outcome has a meaning for elaboration of care beyond the graduating role of quality and other evaluation instruments. Knowledge about outcomes is needed for understanding and development. The aim of this thesis was to investigate outcomes of GPs’ consultations as directly experienced by patients and GPs and to investigate connections between clinical strategies and presumed patient outcomes.Methods. First, concepts describing outcomes from patients’ and GPs’ viewpoints were developed from interviews in groups and individually. Secondly, based on this, questionnaires about the consultation outcomes were formulated. Then, patients and GPs answered questionnaires regarding the same recent consultation. The numbers of the different outcomes were counted and the experiences of outcomes from the same consultations were compared. Finally, another questionnaire including both the GP outcome questions and questions about the clinical situation and decisions made was answered by GPs.Results. Concepts describing consultation outcomes were brought forward. Cure/symptom relief, reassurance, patient understanding and satisfaction were used by both patients and GPs to describe outcome of consultations. Only patients described as outcomes a confirmation of their ideas and a change in self-perception. GPs, but not patients, described the patient outcomes in terms of check-up and coping. Besides this, GPs also described other outcomes that concerned relationship-building, a change of surgery routines and self-evaluation. Selfevaluation was related to a perceived collegial consensus about right and wrong. The concordance between GPs and patients assessing the same consultations was high for satisfaction, intermediate for patient understanding and low for belief in cure/symptom relief. Clinical strategies were linked to outcomes. Immediate problem solving was registered in about half the consultations. When immediate problem solving was registered the patients were supposed to be more reassured, satisfied and coped better than after gradual problem solving. With increasing psychosocial content of the consultation the GPs registered more dissatisfaction both for themselves and their patients.Conclusions. Change in self- perception was a prominent patient outcome. GPs’ self-evaluations ought to have the inherent possibility to serve as a basis for development of general practice.The entire map of the encountered outcome concepts can serve as a basis for further research and development. The mapping of concepts can be of help when prioritising. Knowledge about the total picture of consultation outcomes can help the GP to understand the patients’ worlds better. It can also contribute to a realistic picture of possible consultation outcomes. The GPs seemed to adjust their problem solving (immediate or gradual) to the registered problem and furthermore adjust the immediate problem solving, focusing either on the problem or on the patient as a person.