Table 3.
Differences in care given at initial consultation (values adjusted for age, sex, and intracluster correlation)
| Nurse practitioners
|
General practitioners
|
Adjusted mean difference (95% CI) | P value | Intracluster correlation | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No of patients | Mean (SD) | No of patients | Mean (SD) | |||||
| Total consultation time (min) | 639 | 12.90 (6.28) | 639 | 7.49 (4.75) | 5.46 (4.16 to 6.78) | <0.001 | 0.19 | |
| Face to face consultation time* (min) | 639 | 11.57 (5.79) | 651 | 7.28 (4.80) | 4.20 (2.98 to 5.41) | <0.001 | 0.17 | |
| Mean number of physical examinations per patient | 612 | 2.28 (1.55) | 635 | 1.95 (1.57) | 0.19 (−0.03 to 0.71) | 0.072 | 0.19 | |
| Mean number of return visits | 638 | 0.49 (0.79) | 651 | 0.36 (0.66) | 0.14 (0.05 to 0.22) | 0.002 | 0.0† | |
*
Face to face consultation time = total consultation time minus time to have prescription signed or time to sign a prescription.
†
Negative estimate of intracluster correlation coefficients.