Abstract
BackgroundHealthcare policy appears to treat healthcare organisations as being homogenous, despite evidence that they vary considerably. This study develops a taxonomy of primary health care practices using characteristics associated with the job satisfaction of general medical practitioners (GPs) and the practices.MethodsThe study used data from 3,662 survey respondents who were GPs in the 2009 wave of the MABEL survey. Cluster analyses were used to determine natural groups of medical practices based on multidimensional characteristics.ResultsSeven configurations of primary health care practices emerged from multivariate cluster analyses: optimised team, independent craft, reactive, winding down, classic, practitioner flexible, and scale efficiency.ConclusionsThis taxonomy of configurations moves beyond simplistic categorisations such as geographic location and highlights the complexity of primary health care organisations in Australia. Health policy, workforce and procedure interventions informed by taxonomies can engage the diversity of primary health care practices.
Highlights
Healthcare policy appears to treat healthcare organisations as being homogenous, despite evidence that they vary considerably
This study successfully derived a taxonomy of primary health practices based on configurations of the characteristics of practices and extended prior research that had noted certain characteristics being important to general medical practitioners (GPs) satisfaction e.g., per [11,12,13]
The seven multi-dimensional configurations derived from the current study move beyond simplistic characterisations such as geography and are similar to the six types of practices outlined by Williams et al [5], and demonstrate the viability of a multidimensional approach to primary health care practices and the complexity of the sector
Summary
Healthcare policy appears to treat healthcare organisations as being homogenous, despite evidence that they vary considerably. This study develops a taxonomy of primary health care practices using characteristics associated with the job satisfaction of general medical practitioners (GPs) and the practices. More recent research has demonstrated that there may be as many as six forms of practices; based on size, whether they contain hospital work and whether these practices are multi-disciplinary or conduct community activities [5], this taxonomy was based on practices in Canada in the 1980s.
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