Sickness certification system in the United Kingdom: qualitative study of views of general practitioners in Scotland

Objectives To explore how general practitioners operate the sickness certification system, their views on the system, and suggestions for change.Design Qualitative focus group study consisting of 11 focus groups with 67 participants.Setting General practitioners in practices in Glasgow, Tayside, and Highland regions, Scotland.Sample Purposive sample of general practitioners, with further theoretical sampling of key informant general practitioners to examine emerging themes.Results General practitioners believed that the sickness certification system failed to address complex, chronic, or doubtful cases. They seemed to develop various operational strategies for its implementation. There appeared to be important deliberate misuse of the system by general practitioners, possibly related to conflicts about roles and incongruities in the system. The doctor-patient relationship was perceived to conflict with the current role of general practitioners in sickness certification. When making decisions about certification, the general practitioners considered a wide variety of factors. They experienced contradictory demands from other system stakeholders and felt blamed for failing to make impossible reconciliations. They clearly identified the difficulties of operating the system when there was no continuity of patient care. Many wished either to relinquish their gatekeeper role or to continue only with major changes.Conclusions Policy makers need to recognise and accommodate the range and complexity of factors that influence the behaviour of general practitioners operating as gatekeepers to the sickness certification system, before making changes. Such changes are otherwise unlikely to result in improvement. Models other than the primary care gatekeeper model should be considered.     

提高规范化培训住院医师在CCU沟通能力的探讨

摘要：随着生物医学模式向生物．心理．社会医学模式的转变,构建和谐的医患关系成为当今医学发展和进步的时代新要求,构建和谐的医患关系,有效的医患沟通是获得良好医疗效果的基本保证,本文总结了目前参加规范化培训的住院医师在心脏科重症监护室培训轮转期间医患沟通中存在的问题,分析了沟通障碍的主要影响因素,包括住院医师对医患关系的沟通认识不够充分,沟通技巧不够,工作负担增加,患方经济负担增加,治疗效果心理预期增加,医患双方认知差异增加,失信增加,健康和维权意识增加等都影响了医患关系的和谐构建;心脏重症监护室是心血管系统中常见病,多发病发展到终末期或急重期间的治疗场所,特点是病情急,危,重,死亡率高,结合其医患关系的实际特点,提出了提高住院医师沟通能力的可行性措施,主要包括：沟通的内容务必真实可信,形式力求形象,换位思考,注重诚信待人,加强非语言沟通,注重沟通分寸,尊重患者或家属的知情同意权,加强心脏监护室的细节规范化管理等。     

The medical decision-making process and the family: the case of breast cancer patients and their husbands

Objectives:  The objectives of the study were (1) to assess similarities and differences between breast cancer patients and their husbands in terms of doctor-patient/spouse relationships and shared decision making; and (2) to investigate the association between breast cancer patients and husbands in terms of preference of type of doctor, doctor-patient relationship, and shared decision making regarding medical treatment.
Method:  Fifty-seven women with breast cancer, and their husbands, completed questionnaires measuring doctor-patient/spouse relationships (paternalism, autonomy), and decision making regarding medical treatment.
Results:  Patients believe they have a key role in the medical decision-making process (93%) and that the participation of their husbands, and their agreement with the decision, is important (84% and 89%, respectively). Both breast cancer patients and their husbands prefer a shared decision-making process to paternalistic or autonomy-based approaches.
Conclusion:  In contrast to legal and bioethical approaches, which focus on the patient as the primary decision maker, this study reflects a practical recognition of the role of the breast cancer patient's husband in the decision-making process. It also reflects a relational rather than an individualistic perception of patient autonomy.     

医患信任的伦理困境及解决策略

当现代医患关系受到广泛诟病,医患不信任愈演愈烈之时,人们试图回归传统去寻求解决思路。传统的古代医患关系以信义为基础,强调以患者为本,医者需以德为先,同时注重医患沟通。然而古代医患信任关系也存在医家择病、择人及病家试医、择医等诸多弊端陋习。本文综述古代医患信任关系的伦理困境及解决策略,借古鉴今,在前人处理医患关系的利弊得失中,寻求医患信任关系建立的最佳处事之道,为当今医患信任关系的建立提供可资借鉴的思路和经验。     

Diagnosis and management of hypertension: the stated practices of family physicians.

Hypertension is an important and common problem in family practice, but there is no general agreement on the systolic and diastolic pressures at which it should be diagnosed and treated. Responses from 273 family physicians surveyed by mail in Metropolitan Toronto showed a wide variation in the pressures used as cut-off points. The probability that in a given patient hypertension would be diagnosed or treated at different systolic and diastolic pressures varied considerably among the physicians, the variation increasing with the age of the patient. There was also wide variation in opinion among the surveyed physicians about how often patients should be screened for hypertension; depending on the patient''s age, up to 35% of the physicians stated that the blood pressure should be measured at every visit. Only one third reported using any one or more methods to ensure that patients with hypertension were not lost to follow-up. The family physicians with an academic appointment used higher cut-off points for diagnosis and treatment, and they screened and scheduled follow-up visits less frequently than those without an academic appointment.     

Basics of voice dysfunction--etiology and prevention of voice damage

Voice is one of the most important means of communication and as such should be taken care of. The etiology of voice disorders is diverse. Due to the development of the society we live in, way of life, environmental factors, and exposure to pharmacological agents as well as demands we make towards our voice, there is a substantial growth in the number of people with voice disorders. We tasked ourselves to find out if it is possible to enlighten people on the importance of voice, to motivate them to take care of it, to notice the changes in its quality and eventually ask for help. We assessed in which measure do we understand the importance of a healthy voice, and do we know which is the most important factor that adds to its decline. For a long number of years voice therapists and other experts in the voice disorder field have been discussing the optimal voice impostation as well as vocal exercises and methods behind voice recovery. They have all come to the same conclusion that phonation is dependant on the sort of the voice disorder and the patient motivation. We wanted to go one step further and investigate, dependence of voice quality and the damage etiology (organic - functional), which are the predominant causes, what are the factors that account for the damage and how the disorder motivates the patient and therefore influences the rehabilitation success rate.     

Cost-effectiveness of exome sequencing: an Italian pilot study on undiagnosed patients

Recent advances in genomic sequencing and their implementation in clinical practice are widely recognized as diagnostic milestones, and are influencing considerably medical decision making in term of patients’ management. The cost-effectiveness of genomic analysis as first-tier tests has been documented. However, only a few studies have assessed systematically the economic impact of a revised diagnostic trajectory based on exome sequencing in the health system for undiagnosed patients. We report on the assessment of diagnostic costs referred to a large cohort of patients enrolled in the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital’s “Undiagnosed Patients Program”, supporting the cost-effectiveness of exome sequencing in a universalistic health care service compared to the traditional multi-step diagnostic workup. Our data provide evidence that revision of health policy to promote genomic sequencing of patients with suspected Mendelian disorders would allow reallocation of resources for rare diseases from diagnostics to patient care. At a social level, diagnosis is crucial to receive the social “sick role” and establish an effective doctor-patient relationship. The application of genomic sequencing as first-tier diagnostic test does improve this process speeding up the diagnosis and management of undiagnosed patients.     

Sick autonomy

Complex social and economic forces have placed patient autonomy at the center of medical ethics, and thereby displaced an older ethic of physician beneficence. This development arose, and is sustained, by waning trust in the traditional doctor-patient relationship. As patients have increasingly become clients and consumers, a contract basis for medical care has put the ancient covenant of care in jeopardy. Here, a philosophical approach to harmonize the apparent conflicting claims of patient autonomy and physician beneficence is offered by demonstrating that autonomy need not be understood as protecting a threatened identity. If persons are regarded as atomistic, certain defensive notions of individualistic rights-based autonomy prevail; if a relational construction of personal identity is employed instead, then respect for autonomy becomes part of a wider morality of relationship and care. By reconfiguring trust within this latter understanding of personhood, bioethics better balances its concerns over choices and actions with those of relationship and responsibility. Neither atomistic autonomy nor the ethics of responsibility can claim hegemony, for they are mutually interdependent, and a complete account of medicine's moral axis requires that they be integrated. This reorientation is crucial for reasserting the ethos of clinical medicine, whose fundamental mandate remains the care of others.     

当前医患矛盾对医学生德育教育的影响与对策

当前我国医患关系呈现为整体和谐、局部矛盾尖锐的态势,局部矛盾体现在暴力伤医事件频频发生。在缓解局部矛盾的过程中,医学生作为青年学生,面对恶性暴力事件带来的冲击时心理生理都会受到很大影响。同时,医学生作为未来医生又直接关系到未来医患关系的构建,因此,如何在当前特殊形势下避免医患矛盾给医学生带来不良影响,加强医学生德育教育的有效性,成为医学生德育教育的重点和难点。本文通过分析医患矛盾成因,对医学生德育教育的影响以及对策来探讨和研究,希望为构建和谐医患关系和医学生德育教育方面提供新的解决思路。     

Patient care and the general practitioner. Joint Working Party of the Welsh Council of the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Welsh General Medical Services Committee.

The role of general practitioners is being redefined in the light of the emphasis on more care in the community, economic factors, and patients'' expectations. The strength of general practice lies in the doctor-patient relationship; this strength must not be lost sight of. Specific tasks of the general practitioner include the responsibility for the care of individuals; the role of gatekeeper; broad knowledge of curative, preventive; and rehabilitative medicine; teamwork; management; and development of population based strategies. Future work patterns include the general practitioner first and foremost as a clinician and an integrator of health services, but they also involve audit, education and training, research, management, and relations with organisations in the public, private, and voluntary sectors. It is important to make changes only when they benefit patients and to maintain the principle of equity of access to care.     

浅论神经外科医患沟通的特点、困境和技巧

近年我国医患矛盾频发、医患关系紧张。有效的医患沟通,有助于提高医疗服务质量,保障医疗服务安全;有助于避免或减少医疗纠纷,构建和谐医患关系。神经外科疾病类型多,变化快,诊断复杂,进展迅猛,治疗风险和费用高,容易发生医患纠纷;优秀的神经外科医生应该掌握良好的医患沟通技巧,维系和谐医患关系。     

Quality and the use of time in general practice: widening the discussion.

To examine the association between different consulting styles in general practice (defined according to the average length of doctor-patient contact time in surgery consultations) and the process of care for those patients presenting with new episodes of respiratory illness, 1787 consultations conducted by 85 general practitioner principals in Lothian from November 1987 to May 1988 were analysed. Short as against long consultations resulted in less attention being given to psychosocial issues that the doctor recognised as relevant. When psychosocial problems were dealt with prescribing of antibiotics decreased. In this volunteer sample of doctors the process of care seemed to reflect decisions as to how time was allocated rather than inherently different patterns of clinical behavior. Organisational and contractual changes will shift the mix of financial and professional incentives for general practitioners in ways that could lead to doctors reallocating their time toward shorter consultations; such a reallocation could have important implications for patient care.     

Outreach Method Predicts Patient Re-engagement in Diabetes Care During Sustained Care Disruption

ObjectiveDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, visits for diabetes care were abruptly canceled without predefined procedures to re-engage patients. This study was designed to determine how outreach influences patients to maintain diabetes care and identify factors that might impact the intervention’s efficacy.MethodsA diabetes nursing team attempted outreach for patients who had a canceled appointment for diabetes between March 16, 2020, and June 19, 2020. Outreach status was defined as reached, message left, or no contact. Outcomes were defined as follows: (1) booking and (2) keeping a follow-up appointment.ResultsSeven hundred eighty-seven patients were included (384 [49%] were reached, 152 (19%) were left a message, and 251 (32%) had no contact). Reached patients were more likely to book [odds ratio (OR) = 2.43, P < .001] and keep an appointment (OR = 2.39, P < .001) than no-contact patients. Leaving a message did not increase the odds of booking (OR = 1.05, P = .84) or keeping (OR = 1.17, P = .568) an appointment compared with no contact. Older age was a significant predictor of booking an appointment (OR = 1.014 for each year of age, P = .037). Patients on insulin were more likely to keep their appointment (OR = 1.70, P = .008). Patients with a higher hemoglobin A1C level were less likely to keep their appointment (OR = 0.87 for each 1.0% increase in the hemoglobin A1C level, P = .011).ConclusionThese findings suggest that to optimize re-engagement during care disruption, 1-way communication is no better than no contact and that 2-way communication increases the likelihood that patients will maintain access to care. In addition, although higher-risk patients (eg, patients with older age or those on insulin) may be more incentivized to stay engaged, targeted outreach is needed for those with chronically poor glycemic control.     

Helping disabled people--the user's view.

The main needs for most people with physical disabilities are housing and help with daily living. Thus, many of them will find the new emphasis on social aspects of community care particularly relevant. Peter Swain is a disabled man who leads a project in east Devon which ensures that disabled people have a voice in helping to shape the services they need. In this article he explains how the project, Living Options East Devon, works and how the new legislation for community care might affect disabled people.     

Physiological Responses and Partisan Bias: Beyond Self-Reported Measures of Party Identification

People are biased partisans: they tend to agree with policies from political parties they identify with, independent of policy content. Here, we investigate how physiological reactions to political parties shape bias. Using changes in galvanic skin conductance responses to the visual presentation of party logos, we obtained an implicit and physiological measure of the affective arousal associated with political parties. Subsequently, we exposed subjects to classical party cue experiments where the party sponsors of specific policies were experimentally varied. We found that partisan bias only obtains among those exhibiting a strong physiological reaction to the party source; being a self-reported party identifier is not sufficient on its own. This suggests that partisan bias is rooted in implicit, affective reactions.     

多维视角下医患关系内涵与对策分析

医患关系是一个复杂的医学和社会学交叉的概念,和谐的医患关系对于促进医疗体系健康发展具有重要的实践意义。近年来国内外学者对医患关系的关注程度日渐增加,通过多维视角下中国医患关系的内涵、现状分析,探究构建和谐医患关系的对策。     

论法律视野中医患关系的性质

医患关系法律性质的准确界定是医患纠纷妥善解决的基本前提。目前，我国关于医患关系法律性质的四种主流观点往往把医患关系归属于某种法律关系，这样的做法都显得会以偏概全或牵强附会。医患关系的基本法律属性是民事法律关系，但具有区别于一般法律关系的特征，是特殊的民事法律关系，在医患纠纷阶段，是民事侵权关系。     

网络医疗中医患关系的建立与认定

医患关系的建立与认定在网络医疗中关乎医患双方合法权益的维护,对网络医疗的规范与发展有重要意义。通过文献分析、专家咨询等方法,分析网络医疗医患关系建立与认定上存在的障碍,借鉴美国实践经验,提出基于我国国情的建议。网络医疗带来了医患关系主体、建立条件、认定方式的变化,对通过挂号建立与认定医患关系的传统模式带来了挑战。应在承认线上医患关系及医疗行为的基础上,制定符合我国法律法规、严于线下诊疗标准的网络医疗医患关系建立标准。同时,应从法律手段与技术手段两方面加强网络医疗医患关系的认定,保障网络医疗中医患双方的合法权益。     

Autonomy and competency--self-determination in the lives of adults with developmental disabilities

The principle of autonomy anchors decision making for most North Americans. For people with disabilities, however, the quest for self-determination is often countered by society's responsibility to take care of those who have some area of weakness or incompetence. Those who serve this population must, therefore, intentionally shift the balance of power to encourage independent living and to give people with disabilities a voice in their own lives. Changes in the system of care, training, and the way questions of competency are adjudicated are contemplated.     

围医患沟通理论的研究现状与进展

近些年来,医患关系呈日趋紧张之势,医疗纠纷数目不断攀升,各大医院纷纷强调医患沟通的重要性,各大医学院校也反复重申医患沟通的必要性,但往往注重沟通过程本身,忽视沟通前的准备以及沟通效果的评价。文章通过分析国内外医患沟通研究的趋势和现状,提出“围医患沟通”的理论实施与评价,进一步保障医疗安全,构建和谐医患关系。