Family doctor’s clinical schedule: evolutionary analysis of the last decade.
Pedro TORAN MONTSERRAT, Gemma SEDA GOMBAU, Krysztof LEWICKI CZAPLA, Georgina NOELIA GROSSI, Clara SOLER GIMBERNAT, Mª Ana GIRAUDO STABIO, Silvina ALCORTA VALLEJOS, Manuel Fernando NOGUERA FRANCO, Felipe SAATDJIAN MALDONADO and Josefa PLAZA URÉNDEZ
During 2023, the Government will promote the increase in in-person visits in primary care consultations, with the idea of recovering pre-pandemic levels.To analyze how the family doctor's schedule has evolved from 2017 to 2025.A multicenter cross-sectional descriptive study with the participation of 130 family doctors from 35 primary care centers serving a population of approximately 500,000 inhabitants. Each doctor recorded the visit types of a full working day as well as the reasons for consultation in 2017, in 2019, in 2021, one week in May 2022, one week in May 2023, and one week in May 2025.2,009 medical workdays were recorded, and 60,848 visits were analyzed. The average total visits per day between 2017 and 2025 is 30.5, with a minimum of 27.8 visits in 2019 and a maximum of 32.6 in 2025. The average number of reasons for consultation per day remained between 39.8 in 2021 and 44.8 in 2022. Face-to-face visits represented 75.23% in 2017, 67.3% in 2019, 27.78% in 2021, 47.36% in 2022, 49.3% in 2023, and 50.7% in 2025. Telephone visits accounted for 15.44% in 2017, 8.56% in 2019, 35.19% in 2021, 20.50% in 2022, and 17.3% in 2023 and 2025. Telematic visits or eConsultation practically did not exist in 2017 or 2019, appearing in 2021 representing 11.26%, 9.74% in 2022, 6.17% in 2023, and 6.68% in 2025.In these latest years post-pandemic we have appropriated the assistance documents of any 2017 regarding the name of visits and the reasons for consultation.Despite the pandemic, the average number of visits and reasons for consultation per day has not suffered major oscillations in these 8 years of study. However, face-to-face visits suffered a drastic reduction, and it does not seem that we will recover the percentages of a decade ago. eConsultation and telephone visits have remained stable since 2023.
