Table 2.

Strategies used to improve access.

	Advanced Access?				Comparison between Advanced Access and non-Advanced Access practices
	Yes (n = 162)a		No (n = 79)a
	n	%	n	%	Odds ratio	95% CI	P-value
Interventions used to improve access
Telephone advice for some new consultations	104	66.2	38	48.1	2.12	1.22 to 3.68	0.008
Planned telephone consultations for some follow-up consultations	97	92.9	35	44.3	2.07	1.19 to 3.58	0.010
Specific measures to reduce follow-up	76	52.8	24	32.0	2.38	1.32 to 4.26	0.004
Telephone triage by GPs	84	52.5	36	45.6	1.32	0.77 to 2.67	0.314
Telephone triage by nurses	58	36.3	26	33.3	1.14	0.64 to 2.01	0.659
Telephone triage for home visits	128	80.5	54	68.4	1.91	1.03 to 3.54	0.039
Nurse practitioners provide initial consultations for minor illness	45	28.8	20	26.3	1.14	0.61 to 2.10	0.687
Redirect workload from GPs to nurses	120	75.0	59	74.7	1.02	0.55 to 1.89	0.958
Redirect workload from GPs to healthcare assistants	85	54.5	26	33.8	2.35	1.33 to 4.14	0.003
Email consultations	2	1.3	2	2.5	0.49	0.07 to 3.57	0.484
Advice about self-care on practice website	25	16.1	9	11.5	1.47	0.65 to 3.33	0.351
Other recommended aspects of Advanced Access
Documented contingency plans	79	51.0	34	43.0	1.39	0.89 to 2.40	0.232
Most appointments available on Monday	91	59.1	29	37.7	2.39	1.36 to 4.19	0.002
Collect appointment data monthly	126	78.3	50	64.1	2.02	1.11 to 3.66	0.021
Involve patients in planning changes	40	25.6	10	12.8	2.34	1.10 to 4.99	0.027
Use plan-do-study-act cycles	93	59.6	21	26.9	4.01	2.21 to 7.26	<0.001
Provide extra appointments to clear backlog	95	62.5	29	36.7	2.70	1.53 to 4.79	0.001
Participate in primary care collaborative	109	72.7	29	39.7	4.03	2.23 to 7.28	<0.001

^aThe number of observations differs for each question depending upon the number of missing answers. The percentage given relates to the observations excluding missing data.