Study Finds Common Factors of Good Primary Care; Kingston, New York Medical Malpractice Lawyer Discusses

An interesting study was just released this week from the University of California, Davis finding several key factors of high-quality primary care.  As a result of these factors, patients of those primary care physicians who exhibit these have a lower risk of death!  The first factor is that the physician holds evening and weekend office hours, thus creating greater availability and accessibility for his or her patients.
           
The second factor is comprehensiveness of the physician and his or her treatment of the patient.  This includes providing preventive care and the depth of that service, referrals to other health care professionals, and care for new health issues immediately—whether or not they may need immediate attention.
           
The third factor is patient-centeredness.  This is also something I have discussed in a few blog posts because it is also quite obvious how beneficial this can be for a patient.  This key factor means that the physicians are listening and seeking a patient’s advice when deciding on treatment; it is a form a patient empowerment.
           
The study looked at over 52,000 patients ranging from 18 to 90 during a six year study.  Factors such as age, current health, and some others were leveled out and adjusted to create uniformity.  Applying these three factors of quality primary care yielded a significantly lower risk of death for the patients then other features or just not having them.
           
I think this was an interesting study and it is something we can really “test” out our physicians to see if they meet or exceed these features.  I would be interested to see if there was a counter-survey that physicians who significantly LACK in these three areas have more incidents of medical malpractice; or at least medical malpractice lawsuits.  I know for a fact that those physicians who fail to adequately communicate with their patients generally have a higher rate of lawsuit against them.

But what do you think?  I would love to hear from you!  I welcome your phone call on my toll-free cell at 1-866-889-6882 or you can drop me an e-mail at jfisher@mmolaw.net.  You are always welcome to request my FREE book, The Seven Deadly Mistakes of Malpractice Victims, at the home page of my website at www.protectingpatientrights.com.