In Slovenia, the role of family physicians in primary care and preventive procedures is very important. Influenza vaccination rates in Slovenia are low. The reasons for low vaccination rates in ...Slovenia were not clear. We suppose that patient's beliefs and attitudes are important factors. We assessed patients' opinions regarding the acceptance of flu vaccination by their family physicians and their beliefs and attitudes about flu and vaccination. The aim was to check out factors that influence the decision to take the vaccine in family physician offices.
This was a cross-sectional, multicenter, observational study in the Styria region in Slovenia. We included patients from seven family physicians during regular office visits. They filled in a questionnaire about their general demographic data and attitudes regarding influenza and vaccination. The main outcome was the decision to be vaccinated.
The logistic regression model identified five predictors for influenza vaccination, namely: heart disease, previous vaccination, an agreement with the beliefs 'the vaccination is an efficient measure to prevent influenza', 'after the vaccination there are usually no important side effects' and 'the vaccination is also recommended for a healthy adult person'. The belief that vaccinations harm the immune system is negatively associated with vaccination.
Patients' beliefs are an important factor to decide for vaccination or not. Family physician teams should discuss with patients their beliefs and concerns about vaccination.
Objectives. In Slovenia, the role of family physicians in primary care and preventive procedures is very important. Influenza vaccination rates in Slovenia are low. The reasons for low vaccination ...rates in Slovenia were not clear. We suppose that patient’s beliefs and attitudes are important factors. We assessed patients’ opinions regarding the acceptance of flu vaccination by their family physicians and their beliefs and attitudes about flu and vaccination. The aim was to check out factors that influence the decision to take the vaccine in family physician offices.
Methods. This was a cross-sectional, multicenter, observational study in the Styria region in Slovenia. We included patients from seven family physicians during regular office visits. They filled in a questionnaire about their general demographic data and attitudes regarding influenza and vaccination. The main outcome was the decision to be vaccinated.
Results. The logistic regression model identified five predictors for influenza vaccination, namely: heart disease, previous vaccination, an agreement with the beliefs ‘the vaccination is an efficient measure to prevent influenza’, ‘after the vaccination there are usually no important side effects’ and ‘the vaccination is also recommended for a healthy adult person’. The belief that vaccinations harm the immune system is negatively associated with vaccination.
Conclusions. Patients’ beliefs are an important factor to decide for vaccination or not. Family physician teams should discuss with patients their beliefs and concerns about vaccination.
Uvod. V Sloveniji ima zdravnik družinske medicine pomembno vlogo pri izvajanju preventive. Delež cepljenih proti gripi je v Sloveniji nizek. Razlogi za to niso povsem jasni. Preučevali smo mnenje bolnikov glede cepljenja proti gripi pri njihovem družinskem zdravniku ter njihova stališča in prepričanja o gripi in cepljenju. Cilj naloge je bil odkriti dejavnike, ki vplivajo na odločitev o cepljenju v ambulanti družinske medicine.
Metode. Raziskava je bila presečna multicentrična opazovalna. Vključili smo bolnike iz 7 ambulant družinske medicine na Štajerskem v Sloveniji. Vzorec je zajemal bolnike, ki so prišli v ambulanto. Izpolnili so vprašalnik z demografskimi podatki ter stališči o gripi in cepljenju. Glavni opazovani dogodek je bil odločitev za cepljenje.
Rezultati. V logističnem regresijskem modelu so bili najpomembnejši napovedni dejavniki odločitve za cepljenje srčna bolezen, cepljenje v preteklosti, strinjanje, da je cepljenje najbolj učinkovit ukrep proti gripi, strinjanje, da cepljenje običajno nima pomembnih stranskih učinkov, in strinjanje, da je cepljenje priporočljivo tudi za odraslo zdravo osebo. Prepričanje, da cepljenje škodi imunskemu sistemu, je negativni napovedni dejavnik odločitve za cepljenje.
Zaključki. Stališča bolnikov so pomemben dejavnik pri odločitvi za cepljenje. V ambulantah družinske medicine bi se morali z bolniki več pogovarjati o njihovih stališčih in pomislekih o cepljenju.
Telemonitoring and web-based interventions are increasingly used in primary-care practices in many countries for more effective management of patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). A new approach in ...treating patients with diabetes mellitus in family practices, based on ICT use and nurse practitioners, has been introduced and evaluated in this study.
Fifteen Slovene family practices enrolled 120 DM patients treated only with a diet regime and/or tablets into the study. 58 of them were included into the interventional group, and the other 62 DM patients into the control group, within one-year-long interventional, randomised controlled trial. Patients in the control group had conventional care for DM according to Slovenian professional guidelines, while the patients in the interventional group were using also the eDiabetes application. Patients were randomised through a balanced randomisation process.
Significant reductions of glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) values were found after 6 and 12 months among patients using this eDiabetes application (p<0.05). Among these patients, a significant correlation was also found between self-monitored blood pressure and the final HbA1c values. Diabetic patients' involvement in web-based intervention had only transient impact on their functional health status.
This eDiabetes application was confirmed to be an innovative approach for better self-management of DM type 2 patients not using insulin. Both a significant reduction of HbA1c values and a significant correlation between the average self-measured blood pressure and the final HbA1c values in the interventional group were found. Nurse practitioners - as diabetes care coordinators - could contribute to better adherence in diabetes e-care.
Slovenia's national eHealth strategy aims to develop an efficient, flexible and modern health care informatics framework that would be comparable to the most successful EU countries. To achieve this ...goal, the gap between availability and usage of information and communication technology by primary care physicians needs to be reduced.As recent efforts show, consensus on information and communication technology purpose and usage in primary care needs to be established before any national information and communication technology solutions are developed.The aim of this study was to identify the most appropriate measures in implementation of Slovene national eHealth strategy and to suggest an appropriate model for success by using the three round Delphi study.
An e-mail based, three-round Delphi study was undertaken to achieve consensus from a selected sample of nationally recognized experts from the fields of primary health care and medical informatics. The aim of this study was to identify the most appropriate measures and key obstacles in implementation of eHealth in Slovene primary health care by using the Delphi study.
High levels of consensus on the majority of suggested measures were achieved among all study participants, as well as between the subgroups of experts from primary health care and medical informatics. All aims of the three-round Delphi study on eHealth implementation in Slovenian primary health care were achieved.
The three round decision Delphi process has proven to be effective for developing outcomes, ranking key priorities in primary care eHealth development, and achieving consensus among the most influential experts in that field. This consensus is an important contribution to future national eHealth strategies in the field of primary health care.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Treatments and organizational changes supported by eHealth are beginning to play an important role in improving disease treatment outcome and providing cost-efficient care management. ..."Improvehealth.eu" is a novel eHealth service to support the treatment of patients with depressive disorder. It offers active patient engagement and collaborative care management by combining Web- and mobile-based information and communication technology systems and access to care managers.
Our objective was to assess the feasibility of a novel eHealth service.
The intervention--the "Improvehealth.eu" service--was explored in the course of a pilot study comparing two groups of patients receiving treatment as usual and treatment as usual with eHealth intervention. We compared patients' medication adherence and outcome measures between both groups and additionally explored usage and overall perceptions of the intervention in intervention group.
The intervention was successfully implemented in a pilot with 46 patients, of whom 40 were female. Of the 46 patients, 25 received treatment as usual, and 21 received the intervention in addition to treatment as usual. A total of 55% (12/25) of patients in the former group and 45% (10/21) in the latter group finished the 6-month pilot. Available case analysis indicated an improvement of adherence in the intervention group (odds ratio OR = 10.0, P = .03). Intention-to-treat analysis indicated an improvement of outcome in the intervention group (ORs ranging from 0.35 to 18; P values ranging from .003 to .20), but confidence intervals were large due to small sample sizes. Average duration of use of the intervention was 107 days. The intervention was well received by 81% (17/21) of patients who reported feeling actively engaged, in control of their disease, and that they had access to a high level of information. In all, 33% (7/21) of the patients also described drawbacks of the intervention, mostly related to usability issues.
The results of this pilot study indicate that the intervention was well accepted and helped the patients in the course of treatment. The results also suggest the potential of the intervention to improve both medication adherence and outcome measures of treatment, including reduction of depression severity and patients becoming "healthy."
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Izhodišča: Informacijsko-komunikacijska tehnologija (IKT) in brezpapirno delo lahko izboljšata obstoječe delovne procese in so pomembna sestavina sodobnega osnovnega zdravstva. Namen študije je bil ...analizirati stališča zdravstvenega osebja in pacientov glede brezpapirne ambulante in najpogostejše uporabljene informacijskokomunikacijske tehnologije v slovenskem osnovnem zdravstvu.
Background: Information and communication technology (ICT) and paperless practices have been shown to improve “existing processes in the workplace” “as well as being an important component of modern ...primary healthcare”. The aim of our study was to analyse the attitudes of health-care professionals and patients with regard to paperless practice and the most frequently used information and communication technology tools in Slovenian primary healthcare.
Qualitative methodology using focus groups of 22 primary care physicians, 14 nurses and 18 patients.
The areas recognised by all participants as important for further information and communication technology development were: computer-supported decision making, accessibility and completeness of personal e-health data, emergency cases, support for chronic disease management, ICT related time savings, e-prescriptions and e-discharge letters. The most important identified barriers impeding the use of ICT were: the heavy workload of primary care physicians and nurses, health insurance reimbursement rules and duplication of work using both paper and electronic health records.
This study highlighted a number of strengths of ICT use in primary care as well as numerous areas where changes in procedures and improvement of ICT tools to support them are needed.
Izhodišča: Informacijsko-komunikacijska tehnologija (IKT) in brezpapirno delo lahko izboljšata obstoječe delovne procese in so pomembna sestavina sodobnega osnovnega zdravstva. Namen študije je bil analizirati stališča zdravstvenega osebja in pacientov glede brezpapirne ambulante in najpogostejše uporabljene informacijskokomunikacijske tehnologije v slovenskem osnovnem zdravstvu.
Kvalitativna metodologija fokusnih skupin z 22 zdravniki iz osnovnega zdravstva, s 14 ambulantnimi sestrami in z 18 bolniki.
Področja, ki so jih vsi udeleženci prepoznali kot pomembna za nadaljnji razvoj IKT, so: računalniško podprto odločanje, dostopnost in popolnost osebnih zdravstvenih podatkov, nujni primeri, podpora pri obravnavi kroničnih bolezni, prihranki časa z uporabo IKT, e-recept in e-odpustno pismo. Najpomembnejše ovire za uporabo IKT so: velike delovne obremenitve zdravnikov in sester v osnovnem zdravstvu, pravila zdravstvene zavarovalnice, podvajanje dela z uporabo papirnatih in elektronskih zdravstvenih kartotek.
Študija je poudarila številne prednosti uporabe IKT v osnovnem zdravstvu in tudi številna področja, na katerih so potrebni spremembe v procesih in izboljšanje podpornih orodij IKT.
Uvod. V Sloveniji ima zdravnik družinske medicine pomembno vlogo pri izvajanju preventive. Delež cepljenih proti gripi je v Sloveniji nizek. Razlogi za to niso povsem jasni. Preučevali smo mnenje ...bolnikov glede cepljenja proti gripi pri njihovem družinskem zdravniku ter njihova stališča in prepričanja o gripi in cepljenju. Cilj naloge je bil odkriti dejavnike, ki vplivajo na odločitev o cepljenju v ambulanti družinske medicine.
Background. The number of Slovenian physicians in primary health care who have been using personal computers and electronic medical records in surgeries is increasing. Because of legal regulation in ...which standardpaper medical record are obligatory, using of computers have prolonged the consultation time consequently. On the other hand, contemporary computing technology brings numerous advantages both to health professionals or to users of health services.Methods. In the cross-sectional study made among the health professionals employed in the Primary Health Centre of Brežice and random chosen visitors in three outpatients’ departments of the same Health Centre, author tried to assess a satisfaction level of both interviewed groups after a ten years’ period of using electronic medical record. The attitudes were assessed by a 5-item questionnaire and 5-point Likert scale.Results. Analysis of attitudes indicated statistically significant differences in answers on four of five questions, between health professionals and users of health services. The differences in attitudes between subgroups of physicians and nurses were not significantly different in any of questions. Differences were tested for significance by a Z test having proportions (p < 0.05).Conclusions. Results of the study proved that there are significant differences between the health professionals and users of health services regarding the use/usage of computers in primary care. Further studies with larger samples and more questions are needed in Slovenia so that attitudes and opinions of both relevant groups can be determined.
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