Association of Young General Practitioners of Austria (JAMÖ), Graz, Austria.
Fam Pract. 2013 Apr;30(2):185-9. doi: 10.1093/fampra/cms067. Epub 2012 Nov 11.
There is emerging evidence that strong primary care achieves better health at lower costs. Although primary care can be measured, in many countries, including Austria, there is little understanding of primary care development.
Assessing the primary care development in Austria.
A primary care assessment tool developed by Barbara Starfield in 1998 was implemented in Austria. This tool defines 15 primary care characteristics and distinguishes between system and practice characteristics. Each characteristic was evaluated by six Austrian primary care experts and rated as 2 (high), 1 (intermediate) or 0 (low) points, respectively, to their primary care strength (maximum score: n = 30).
Austria received 7 out of 30 points; no characteristic was rated as '2' but 8 were rated as '0'. Compared with the 13 previously assessed countries, Austria ranks 10th of 14 countries and is classified as a 'low primary care' country.
This study provides the first evidence concerning primary care in Austria, benchmarking it as weak and in need of development. The practicable application of an existing assessment tool can be encouraging for other countries to generate evidence about their primary care system as well.
越来越多的证据表明，强大的初级保健可以在更低的成本下实现更好的健康效果。尽管初级保健可以进行衡量，但在包括奥地利在内的许多国家，人们对初级保健的发展了解甚少。
评估奥地利的初级保健发展情况。
使用 Barbara Starfield 于 1998 年开发的初级保健评估工具在奥地利进行实施。该工具定义了 15 个初级保健特征，并区分了系统特征和实践特征。每个特征都由 6 名奥地利初级保健专家进行评估，并根据其初级保健实力分别评为 2（高）、1（中）或 0（低）分（最高得分为 30 分）。
奥地利获得了 7 分中的 30 分；没有特征被评为“2”，但有 8 个特征被评为“0”。与之前评估的 13 个国家相比，奥地利在 14 个国家中排名第 10，被归类为“初级保健薄弱”的国家。
本研究首次提供了有关奥地利初级保健的证据，将其评估为薄弱且需要发展。现有评估工具的实际应用可以鼓励其他国家也对其初级保健系统生成证据。
