Challenges and opportunities for primary care evaluation

Approximately 60% of the 823 million outpatient visits in the United States during the year 2000 were to primary care physicians [1], and this proportion is higher in most other countries. A large body of literature supports the value of primary care; however, surprisingly little is known about the optimal timing, content, and quality of visits in the primary care setting. Moreover, tools to compare primary care providers at the level of the organization, health plan, medical group, or individual provider are limited. Yet, such data could help employers and patients choose providers of primary care, and could also be used for quality improvement, physician education and training, or to reward providers of high quality care. (October 2003)