Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Apr-Jun:12:e128.
doi: 10.5334/ijic.975. Epub 2012 Jun 29.

Progress with relationship continuity 2012, a British perspective

George K Freeman  1
Affiliations

Progress with relationship continuity 2012, a British perspective

George K Freeman. Int J Integr Care. 2012 Apr-Jun.

Abstract

This perspective paper makes a brief conceptual review of continuity and argues that relationship continuity is the most controversial type. Plentiful evidence of association with better satisfaction and outcomes urgently needs to be supplemented by studies of causation. The scope of these has been outlined in this paper. Evidence strongly suggests that patients generally want more relationship continuity than they are getting and that relationship continuity is linked with better patient and staff satisfaction. This is reason enough to justify improving relationship continuity for patients.

Keywords: continuity; patient experience; primary care; relationship continuity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Personal and technical inputs to consultations and their links with types of continuity over time (after Freeman et al. 2003) [37].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Uijen AA, Schers HJ, Schellevis FG, van den Bosch WJHM. How unique is continuity of care? A review of continuity and related concepts. Family Practice. 2011 Nov 1;:1–8. DOI:10.1093/fampra/cmr104. - PubMed
    1. Starfield B. Continuous confusion? (editorial) American Journal of Public Health. 1980;70:117–9. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Becker MH, Drachman RH, Kirscht JP. A field experiment to evaluate various outcomes of continuity of physician care. American Journal of Public Health. 1974;64(11):1062–70. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wasson JH, Sauvigne AE, Mogielnicki RP, Frey WG, Sox CH, Gaudette C, et al. Continuity of outpatient medical care in elderly men: a randomized trial. Journal of the American Medical Association. 1984;252(17):2413–7. - PubMed
    1. McWhinney IR. Continuity of care in family practice. Part 2: implications of continuity. The Journal of Family Practice. 1975;2(3):373–4. - PubMed