Zhongguo quanke yixue (May 2023)
Standardized Workload-based Analysis of the Services Delivered by a Family Doctor Team in a Community Health Institution
Abstract
Background Problems existing in the operation of a family doctor team, such as unclear work content, inappropriate division of labor, and assigning a team member to a position below his true potential, restrict the overall development of the family doctor team. Objective To perform a standardized workload-based analysis of the services delivered by the family doctor team in a central urban community health institution in Shanghai, to understand the major factors associated with the development of the family doctor team, and to provide guidance for the improvement of the work pattern of the team. Methods The family doctor team of Xietu Subdistrict Community Health Center, Xuhui District, Shanghai was selected during July to Novermber 2021. The service projects, parameters of standardized workload and the number of services carried out by the team between August and September 2019, and between August and September 2021 were collected, respectively. The team services were analyzed from three aspects: 1. dividing the team services into essential medical services and public health services according to the nature of the service items, then calculating the total amount of standardized workload and total time used in performing the two kinds of services; 2. dividing the team services into five parts (involving community-based mobilization, screening, diagnosis, intervention and follow-up) according to the idea of integration of medical and preventive services, then calculating the total amount of standardized workload and total time used in performing each part; 3. using the TOPSIS method to comprehensively evaluate the value of all service items included in community-based mobilization, screening and follow-up. Results The standardized workload of the team in delivering public health services increased to 16 961 in August 2021 from 11 486 in August 2019, and increased to 18 089 in September 2021 from 10 433 in September 2019, demonstrating an average increase of 59.9%. Pearson correlation analysis showed that the standardized workload involved in delivering essential medical services had no correlation with that involved in delivering public health services (r=-0.72, P=0.27). The total amount of standardized workload of the five parts of community health work was ranked as follows in a descending order: community-based diagnosis, community-based follow-up, community-based intervention, community-based mobilization, and community-based screening. The total standardized workload and total time used of the latter three were relatively less. According to TOPSIS evaluation results, 13 projects such as updating health records of patients with chronic diseases, follow-up management of patients with hypertension or diabetes, and information maintenance of contracted residents can be considered to be outsourced or to reduce the execution labor cost. Conclusion The family doctor team has not yet formed an effective work model to deliver integrated medical and preventive services, which leads to excessive waste of human resources in the implementation of public health services that need not to be performed by family doctors, affecting the delivery of essential medical services. It is suggested to strengthen the training of professional skills related to community-based interventions for family doctors, and increase relevant facilities and equipment, optimize the allocation of human resources in all parts of community health work, mainly reducing the implementation cost of community-based mobilization, screening and follow-up.
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