Continuity of Care and Patient Satisfaction in a Family Practice Clinic

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Figure 1.
Long-term continuity rates for patient groups based on satisfaction with FP care.

Table 1.

Differences between Survey Participants and Nonparticipants

Variable (Patient Groups)	Participants (n = 192)	Nonparticipants(n = 256)	P
Active duty	8.3%	16.8%	.008
Spouse of active duty	24.5%	23.8%	.87
Child of active duty	8.9%	21.1%	.0004
Retired	23.4%	10.5%	.0002
Spouse of retired	29.2%	21.1%	.06
Child of retired	5.7%	4.3%	.49
Seeing PCP that day	44.2%	39.1%	.48

Table 2.

Descriptive Analysis of Survey Responses for All Patient Groups

Patient	FPC Satisfaction	PercentageContinuity	Ease of App’t	Continuity Importance	PCP Satisfaction
All patients	8.7	50.0	8.1	8.4	9.1
AD	8.9	49.7	8.2	8.9	9.5
Spouses of AD	8.2	52.1	8.1	8.0	9.0
Children of AD	7.4	37.0	8.1	8.6	8.2
Retired	9.1	49.0	8.1	8.7	9.5
Spouse of retired	9.1	53.3	8.1	8.4	8.9
Children of retired	9.1	46.5	8.1	7.7	9.0
ANOVA	P=.003	P= .73	P > .99	P=.56	P=.22

Table 3.

Linear Regression for FPC Patient Satisfaction after Adjusting for Other Patient Preferences and Characteristics

Variable	Univariate Regressionβ	P	Multivariate Regressionβ	P
Continuity	1.736	<.0001	1.172	.002
Ease of appointment	0.196	.0003	0.166	.0003
PCP satisfaction	0.338	<.0001	0.251	.0008
Active duty (1)/Retired (0)	−0.907	.0005	−0.779	.0007
No. of yearly appointments	−0.029	.1480	−0.035	.03

Table 4.

Linear Regression for FPC Satisfaction after Stratifying for Amount of Annual Usage

Variable	All Patients		Low Usage (n = 47)		Mid Usage (n = 87)		High Usage (n = 52)
Variable	β	P	β	P	β	P	β	P
Continuity	1.21	.001	1.03	.10	1.23	.002	2.15	.02
Ease of appointment	0.17	<.001	0.18	.04	0.16	.006	0.15	.16
PCP satisfaction	0.23	.002	0.28	.07	0.19	.05	0.56	.007
Active duty (1)/Retired (0)	−0.75	.001	−0.40	.39	−0.46	.14	−1.77	<.001

Outcome variable=Global FPC Satisfaction (on 10 point scale); R² for all patients=0.295; R² for low usage=0.335; R² for mid usage=0.302; R² for high usage=0.421.