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  • Title: A framework for understanding visits by frequent attenders in family practice.
    Author: Smucker DR, Zink T, Susman JL, Crabtree BF.
    Journal: J Fam Pract; 2001 Oct; 50(10):847-52. PubMed ID: 11674886.
    Abstract:
    OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was to develop a typology of outpatient visits between family physicians and adult "frequent attender" patients. STUDY DESIGN: This was a cross-sectional observational study using qualitative analysis of family physician visits. Three family physician researchers reviewed detailed field notes for each patient based on direct observation of a single office visit to determine major themes and characteristics of physician-patient encounters. POPULATION: Non-pregnant adults in the top 5% for visit frequency, and age-and sex-mated non-frequent attenders were identified from among 1194 adult patients in 18 Midwestern family practice offices as part of The Prevention and Competing Demands in Primary Care Study. RESULTS: Visits by 62 patients who had made at least 25 visits in the previous 2 years were selected (frequent attender visits). Three major dimensions emerged to distinguish different encounter types: (1) biomedical complexity, (2) psychosocial complexity, and (3) the degree of dissonance between the patient and the physician. These 3 dimensions were used in a descriptive framework to characterize visit types as: simple medical, ritual visit, complicated medical, the tango, simple frustration, psychosocial disconnect, medical disharmony, and the heartsink visit. CONCLUSIONS: The discovery of a wide variation of encounter types among adult frequent attenders and the resulting descriptive framework laid a foundation for defining the appropriateness of outpatient health care utilization, for designing interventions to reduce inappropriate utilization, and for educating physicians regarding effective management of frequent attender patients.
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