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Is higher primary care quality associated with lower hospital admissions for people with severe mental illness?

Wednesday 27 March 2013, 2.00PM to 3.30pm

Speaker(s): Rowena Jacobs, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Health Economics, University of York

Abstract: In England, most patients with severe mental illness (SMI) such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and psychoses are treated in primary care by their GP.  GPs oversee care, prescribe medication and provide both mental and physical health services.  One key indicator of the quality of care is low rates of ‘unplanned hospital admissions’. 

People with SMI are at higher risk of hospitalization as they are more likely to experience severe mental health crises and to suffer from preventable physical illnesses.  The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) offers financial rewards to GP practices for good quality care and has the potential to reduce preventable admissions, but studies that have looked at the effects on other diseases report mixed findings. 

We examine whether better primary care practice performance on relevant mental health QOF indicators is associated with lower rates of emergency hospital admissions for (a) SMI and (b) for physical conditions in patients with SMI.  We also consider the resource implications of better primary care performance.  We analyse around 8,500 practices in England over the period 2006/07 to 2010/11.  We control for a rich set of relevant local practice characteristics, patient population characteristics, local area population characteristics, and measures of access to services. 

We report emerging findings, discuss possible interpretations and consider the policy implications for the QOF.

Location: ARRC Auditorium A/RC/014

Seminar presentation slides and audio available here

Seminar presentation slides available here

Who to contact

For more information on these seminars, contact:

Adrian Villasenor
Adrian Villasenor-Lopez
Dacheng Huo
Dacheng Huo

If you are not a member of University of York staff and are interested in attending the seminar, please contact Adrian Villasenor-Lopez or Dacheng Huo so that we can ensure we have sufficient space

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