Petitti D B, Grumbach K
Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, School of Medicine.
J Fam Pract. 1993 Sep;37(3):235-40.
The appropriate revisit interval for most conditions is uncertain. This survey was done to gather information about physicians' recommendations on revisit intervals for three common conditions.
Data were gathered in a mailed survey of 116 primary care physicians in the University of California at San Francisco Collaborative Research Network. Physicians were given descriptions of three hypothetical patients, one with diabetes mellitus, one with angina, and one with hypertension, and were asked when they would recommend a follow-up visit for the condition.
There were great variations in physicians' recommendations about revisit intervals for each hypothetical patient. Internists were significantly more likely than family physicians to recommend a longer revisit interval for the hypothetical patient with diabetes mellitus; a similar revisit pattern was found for the patient with hypertension. There were no significant associations with recommended revisit interval and many other physician characteristics.
As interest in containing the cost and improving the efficiency of medical care increases, knowing how often patients ought to be seen will be a topic of increasing importance. A rational, information-based approach to the choice of revisit interval for common conditions could yield substantial savings in medical care costs. The existence of great variation in recommended revisit interval suggests that physicians are uncertain about what interval is best.
大多数疾病的合适复诊间隔尚不明确。开展此项调查是为了收集医生对于三种常见疾病复诊间隔的建议信息。
通过对加利福尼亚大学旧金山分校协作研究网络中的116名初级保健医生进行邮寄调查来收集数据。向医生提供了三名虚拟患者的描述，一名患有糖尿病，一名患有心绞痛，一名患有高血压，并询问他们会建议该疾病患者何时进行随访复诊。
对于每名虚拟患者，医生在复诊间隔建议方面存在很大差异。内科医生比家庭医生更有可能建议为患有糖尿病的虚拟患者安排更长的复诊间隔；高血压患者也发现了类似的复诊模式。推荐的复诊间隔与许多其他医生特征之间没有显著关联。
随着控制医疗成本和提高医疗效率的关注度不断增加，了解患者应多久就诊一次将成为一个日益重要的话题。采用基于信息的合理方法来选择常见疾病的复诊间隔，有望大幅节省医疗成本。推荐的复诊间隔存在很大差异，这表明医生不确定何种间隔最为合适。
