Het verbeteren van de probleemlijst met een elektronisch zoekprogramma

Introduction: The 'problem list' plays a supportive role in daily care and preventive activities in general practice. The 'problem list' provides an overview of the clinically relevant diseases of a patient. The 'problem list' should include diseases that exist for more than six months, which do not fully recover and which are on the long term important for the patient. An electronic search programme has been developed to optimise the 'problem list'. This study examines the usefulness of such a programme. Methods: Data were available from 43 practices with 148,513 listed patients. The optimised 'problem list' was compared with the initial 'problem list' and with 'active' diagnoses (for which a patient contact with the GP took place during a 1-year period before applying the search tool). Comparisons took place for five conditions: duodenal ulcer, other peptic ulcer, heart failure, depression and intellectual disability. Results: Between 36 and 209 percent more patients had these conditions listed on the 'problem list' after application of the search programme. For most patients the diagnoses were only listed in the optimized 'problem list'. Between 37 and 67 percent of the patients with an 'active' disease had this condition listed in the optimised 'problem list'. Conclusion: Application of the search programme by the GP can optimise the 'problem list'.