Utilization Rate of Primary Health Services in the Diagnosis, Treatment, and Follow-Up of Patients Diagnosed with Rheumatic Disease

Abstract

In this study, we aimed to investigate the utilization of primary health care in the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of patients diagnosed with rheumatic disease. For this purpose, 350 patients with rheumatic disease were included in the survey and 26-question about the demographic information of the patients, utilization of primary health care during and afterwards the diagnosis process of the disease. The mean age of the participants was 48.67±13.26, and 73.7% (n=258) of them were female. The patients were diagnosed with rheumatic disease an average of 6.74±6.07 years ago. Joint pain was the most common complaint with a rate of 79.7%. 22% (n=77) of the patients were referred to first internal medicine outpatient department. First admission rate to a family physician was 12.3% (n=43) and 55.8% (n=24) of these patients were referred to higher care for diagnosis. 69.1% (n=242) of the patients were diagnosed in a tertiary healthcare institution. According to the analysis results, 47.7% of the patients had a prescription from their family physician for their rheumatic diseases, but only 6% (n=21) went to their primary care physician for check-ups for their rheumatic diseases. In our study, the rate of use of primary care services was high when patients' rheumatic disease symptoms first begin and were only prescribed prescription drugs after diagnosis. The tendency to prefer primary care for follow-up was low. Contributing to all processes of the rheumatic disease will reduce the workload of hospitals and contribute to a cost-effective approach. For this, the factors that will eliminate the negative perceptions of patients towards primary care can be reviewed and the rate of patients' preference for primary care can be increased.