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Table 2 Characteristics of sample GPs (n = 125) and practices (n = 60)

From: GP- and practice-related variation in ambulatory sensitive hospitalisations of older primary care patients

Variable

Missing

Freq (%)

Notes

GP characteristics (n = 125)

 Sex

0

  

  Male

 

54 (43.2)

 

  Female

 

71 (56.8)

 

 Country trained

2

 

Overseas-trained GPs include those trained in the UK, South Africa, Sri Lanka, among others

  New Zealand

 

83 (67.5)

  Overseas

 

40 (32.5)

 Years since graduation, mean (SD)

2

24.3 (9.0)

 

 Years in general practice, mean (SD)

16

17.4 (8.7)

 

 Years at this practice, mean (SD)

16

12.8 (9.2)

 

 Number of older patients, mean (SD)

0

65.6 (57.7)

 

 0.6 full time equivalent or higher

16

84 (77.1)

Full time equivalent calculated as number of clinical sessions per week / 10

 Position

17

 

Owners refer to sole owners or partners, associates are GPs on the practice partnership track, and locums are GPs who are not owners or salaried employees of the practice

  Owner or associate

 

93 (86.1)

  Locum or employed GP

 

15 (13.9)

Practice characteristics (n = 60)

 NZDep06 of practice location

0

 

Higher decile areas represent areas with greater levels of deprivation

  1st to 8th decile

 

43 (71.7)

  9th to 10th decile

 

17 (28.3)

 Area type of practice location

0

 

Determined using geographic concordance files from Statistics New Zealand [29]; other area types include satellite urban communities and independent urban communities

  Main urban centre

 

56 (93.3)

  Other

 

4 (6.7)

 ≥ 10% patients aged 75+

11

16 (32.7)

 

 ≥ 10% Maori patients

11

18 (36.7)

 

 5000 enrolled patients or more

11

19 (38.8)

 

 7 GPs or more

6

19 (35.2)

 

 ≥ 30% locum GPs

6

18 (33.3)

We assumed that having a smaller proportion of locum GPs promotes continuity of care

 Formal assessment tool

3

4 (7.0)

Always using a formal assessment tool to help determine whether older patients have special needs

 Clinical audit for frail older patients

3

7 (12.3)

Regularly auditing the practice to identify frail older people who may need additional support or an assessment

 Clinics for frail older patients

4

21 (37.5)

Regularly having clinics for frail older patients to identify need or disability risk

 Home visits

3

46 (80.7)

Providing regular home visits for older patients who need them

 Proactive contacts, any type

3

45 (79.0)

Systematically contacting patients for any of the three reasons specified

  Missed appointments

3

43 (75.4)

  Prescriptions not renewed

4

15 (26.8)

  No check up in a long time

4

21 (37.5)

 Number of practice activities

3

 

A summary score adding the number of positive responses reported by practices to the five proactive processes described above (using assessment tools, auditing the practice, having clinics for frail older patients, home visiting, and systematically contacting patients); an alternative score that considered types of proactive contacts as separate activities (range 0–7) was also calculated

  None

 

4 (7.0)

  1 to 2

 

36 (63.2)

  3 to 5

 

17 (29.8)

  1. Freq frequency, SD standard deviation, NZDep06–2006 New Zealand Index of Deprivation