Abstract
Aim of this study was to obtain a picture of the nature of the primary care pediatricians’ visits during a winter season. We investigated reasons for visits, diagnosis, and pattern of prescription in 284 children. The reason for visit was a planned visit in 54% of cases, a well-being examination in 26%, and an urgent visit for an acute problem in 20% of cases. Cough was the most common symptom reported (61%). The most common pediatricians’ diagnosis was flu-like syndrome (47%). No disease was found by pediatrician in 27% of children with a symptom reported by caregivers. Antibiotics were prescribed in 25% of children, the vast majority of which affected by viral respiratory infections. The unjustified access to physician’s visit may lead to a inappropriate prescription of drugs.
Highlights
Primary ambulatory health care is important for maintaining good health in individuals by providing preventive interventions and early treatment of illness [1]
Preventive care is incorporated into pediatric practice in order to promote health for individual children and adolescents and it is a frequent reason for ambulatory visits, accounting for 20-30% of them [13,14]
During influenza season, an increase in the activity at primary care pediatricians (PCPs) office is observed [9,10] and the high number of officebased preventive care interventions may exceed the capacity of the health care system to fulfil the requests for acute conditions
Summary
Primary ambulatory health care is important for maintaining good health in individuals by providing preventive interventions and early treatment of illness [1]. Children access the primary care health system for three main reasons: preventive care, illness care, and trauma or injury [1]. A progressive increase in ambulatory care visits has been reported in the last years in U.S [2,3]. The annual outbreak of influenza leads to a high rate of outpatient visits and antibiotic prescription in children [5,6,7,8,9,10]. Understanding the pattern of visits at primary care pediatricians (PCPs) offices is important to develop policies aimed to improve access to health services and quality of care provided by physicians
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