De trouw van Belgische patiënten aan hun huisarts

To determine the effect of a non-committal registration specifying the intention of patients to contact a particular general practitioner, on patient loyalty in Belgium.

Setting

Antwerp and Liège

Design

Case control study.

Method

Medical consumption was registered during one year by two health insurance companies for a group of 4000 participating patients (experimental group) and 4000 non-participants (control group) within two selected areas (Antwerp and Liège). Patient loyalty was measured by means of the normalised usual provider continuity index.

Results

No relevant differences were found between the experimental group and the control group. Even when taking into account that a general practitioner is not available 20 of the time, the proportion of loyal patients hardly reached 70.

Conclusion

A non-committal registration had no influence on patient loyalty. There is a clear difference between intention and actual behaviour. More coercive measures are needed to reach a more loyal behaviour.