Health care management of sickness certification tasks: results from two surveys to physicians

BMC Research Notes

Kristina Alexanderson⁴  Elin Hinas⁴  Gunnar Nilsson²  Britt Arrelöv¹  Mia von Knorring³  Christina Lindholm⁴ 

[1] Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden;Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Centre for Family and Community Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden;Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics (LIME) Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden;Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Division of Insurance Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

关键词: Physician;    Sick leave;    Sickness certification practice;    Health care management;   

Others  :  1142639
DOI  :  10.1186/1756-0500-6-207

 received in 2012-10-09, accepted in 2013-05-15,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

Health care in general and physicians in particular, play an important role in patients’ sickness certification processes. However, a lack of management within health care regarding how sickness certification is carried out has been identified in Sweden. A variety of interventions to increase the quality of sickness certification were introduced by the government and County Councils. Some of these measures were specifically aimed at strengthening health care management of sickness certification; e.g. policy making and management support. The aim was to describe to what extent physicians in different medical specialties had access to a joint policy regarding sickness certification in their clinical settings and experienced management support in carrying out sickness certification.

Method

A descriptive study, based on data from two cross-sectional questionnaires sent to all physicians in the Stockholm County regarding their sickness certification practice. Criteria for inclusion in this study were working in a clinical setting, being a board-certified specialist, <65 years of age, and having sickness certification consultations at least a few times a year. These criteria were met by 2497 physicians in 2004 and 2204 physicians in 2008. Proportions were calculated regarding access to policy and management support, stratified according to medical specialty.

Results

The proportions of physicians working in clinical settings with a well-established policy regarding sickness certification were generally low both in 2004 and 2008, but varied greatly between different types of medical specialties (from 6.1% to 46.9%). Also, reports of access to substantial management support regarding sickness certification varied greatly between medical specialties (from 10.5% to 48.8%). More than one third of the physicians reported having no such management support.

Conclusions

Most physicians did not work in a clinical setting with a well-established policy on sickness certification tasks, nor did they experience substantial support from their manager. The results indicate a need of strengthening health care management of sickness certification tasks in order to better support physicians in these tasks.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Lindholm et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

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