PURPOSE Patient-centered care is widely acknowledged as a core value in family medicine. In this systematic review, we aimed to identify and compare instruments, subscales, or items assessing patients’ perceptions of patient-centered care in family medicine. METHODS We conducted a systematic literature review using the MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane databases covering 1980 through April 2009, with a specific search strategy for each database. The search strategy was supplemented with searching by hand and expert suggestions. We looked for articles meeting all of the following criteria: (1) describing self-administered instruments measuring patient perceptions of patient-centered care; (2) reporting quantitative or psychometric results of development or validation; (3) being relevant to an ambulatory family medicine context. The quality of each article retained was assessed using a modified version of the Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy. Instrument’ items were mapped to dimensions of a patient-centered care conceptual framework. RESULTS Of the 3,045 articles identified, 90 were examined in detail, and 26, covering 13 instruments, met our inclusion criteria. Two instruments (5 articles) were dedicated to patient-centered care: the Patient Perception of Patient-Centeredness and the Consultation Care Measure, and 11 instruments (21 articles) included relevant subscales or items. CONCLUSIONS The 2 instruments dedicated to patient-centered care address key dimensions but are visit-based, limiting their applicability for the study of care processes over time, such as chronic illness management. Relevant items from the 11 other instruments provide partial coverage of the concept, but these instruments were not designed to provide a specific assessment of patient-centered care.

Millions of people worldwide have complex health and social care needs. Care coordination for these patients is a core dimension of integrated care and a key responsibility for primary healthcare. Registered nurses play a substantial role in care coordination. This review draws on previous theoretical work and provides a synthesis of care coordination interventions as operationalized by nurses for complex patient populations in primary healthcare. We followed Arksey and O’Malley’s methodological framework for scoping reviews. We carried out a systematic search across CINAHL, MEDLINE, Scopus and ProQuest. Only empirical studies were included. We performed a thematic analysis using deductive (the American Nurses Association Framework) and inductive approaches. Findings were discussed with a group of experts. Thirty-four articles were included in the synthesis. Overall, nursing care coordination activities were synthesized into three categories: those targeting the patient, family and caregivers; those targeting health and social care teams; and those bringing together patients and professionals. Interpersonal communication and information transfer emerged as cross-cutting activities that support every other activity. Our results also brought to light the nurses’ contribution to care coordination efforts for patients with complex needs as well as critical components that should be present in every care coordination intervention for this clientele. These include an increased intensity and frequency of activities, relational continuity of care, and home visits. With the growing complexity of patient’s needs, efforts must be directed towards enabling the primary healthcare level to effectively play its substantial role in care coordination. This includes finding primary care employment models that would facilitate multidisciplinary teamwork and the delivery of integrated care, and guarantee the delivery of intensive yet efficient coordinated care.

Published prevalence studies on multimorbidity present diverse data collection methods, sources of data, targeted age groups, diagnoses considered and study populations, making the comparability of prevalence estimates questionable. The objective of this study was to compare prevalence estimates of multimorbidity derived from two sources and to examine the impact of the number of diagnoses considered in the measurement of multimorbidity.

The presence of multiple chronic conditions is associated with lower health related quality of life (HRQOL). Disease severity also influences HRQOL. To analyse the effects of all possible combinations of single diseases along with their severity on HRQOL seems cumbersome. Grouping diseases and their severity in specific organ domains may facilitate the study of the complex relationship between multiple chronic conditions and HRQOL. The goal of this study was to analyse impaired organ domains that affect the most HRQOL of patients with multiple chronic conditions in primary care and their possible interactions.

A small proportion of patients use an excessively large amount of emergency care resources which often results in emergency department (ED) overcrowding, decreased quality of care and efficiency. There is a need to better identify these patients in order to target those who will benefit most from interventions adapted to their specific needs. We aimed to identify the predictive factors of short-term frequent use of ED (over a 1-year period) and chronic frequent use of ED (over a multiple-year period) and to highlight recurring characteristics in patients. A scoping review was performed of all relevant articles found in Medline published between 1979 and 2015 (Ovid). This scoping review included a total of 20 studies, of these, 16 articles focussed on frequent ED users and four others on chronic frequent ED users. A majority of articles confirm that patients who frequently visit the ED are persons of low socioeconomic status. Both frequent and chronic frequent ED users show high levels of health care use (other than the ED) and suffer from multiple physical and mental conditions. This research highlights which individual factors predict frequent emergency department use. Further research is needed to better characterize and understand chronic frequent users as well as the health issues and unmet medical needs that lead to chronic frequent ED use.