Keywords: Primary Care, Austria, quality, general and family medicine,
Setting:
The project was launched in August 2023. The first certificates were awarded in September 2023. The project applies to the whole of Austria
Target group:
The target group is all statutory health insurance primary care providers throughout Austria.
Description of the innovative practice or project:
In view of the high relevance of comprehensive primary care, it seemed important to determine which GP practices, regardless of their organisational form (individual practice, group practice, primary care centre PVE), fulfill the international criteria for primary care. International definitions of primary care and family medicine (Starfield, WONCA European Definition) were used as a basis for developing the criteria. In addition, national legal requirements for primary care (Primary Care Act, Austrian Structural Plan for Health) and relevant aspects of the Austrian social security system were taken into account. Requirements that are already enshrined in law were not included.
Evaluation:
The criteria were divided into the areas of ‘general requirements’, organisational form, practice team and practice organisation, cooperation in the medical and non-medical fields, training function, and facilities and range of services. So far, of the applications received, 12.9% were assessed negatively, with deficits in the areas of organisation, facilities and range of services being the main reasons for rejection.
Next Steps:
The number of applications for the award of the certificate is to be further increased through various measures in order to make high-quality primary care even more visible.
Lessons learned:
In Austria, international and national primary care standards can be met by all forms of primary care organisation. In quantitative terms, individual contract practices are predominant. Due to the imbalance in requirements caused by legal and financial factors, however, when applying, primary care organisations have a significantly better starting position for meeting the quality criteria than other forms of organisation. A standardisation of the legal primary care-relevant minimum standards could lead to an improvement of this situation.
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EQuiP is open to both Individual and Organizational Memberships. EQuiP offers a platform to improve the knowledge base and to improve closer collaboration between GPs / Family Doctors, researchers, educators, policy makers and organisations involved in quality and safety in family medicine and primary care.
