@article {BeaulieuE590, author = {Marie-Dominique Beaulieu and Jeannie Haggerty and Pierre Tousignant and Janet Barnsley and William Hogg and Robert Geneau and {\'E}veline Hudon and R{\'e}jean Duplain and Jean-Louis Denis and Lucie Bonin and Claudio Del Grande and Natalyia Dragieva}, title = {Characteristics of primary care practices associated with high quality of care}, volume = {185}, number = {12}, pages = {E590--E596}, year = {2013}, doi = {10.1503/cmaj.121802}, publisher = {CMAJ}, abstract = {Background: No primary practice care model has been shown to be superior in achieving high-quality primary care. We aimed to identify the organizational characteristics of primary care practices that provide high-quality primary care.Methods: We performed a cross-sectional observational study involving a stratified random sample of 37 primary care practices from 3 regions of Quebec. We recruited 1457 patients who had 1 of 2 chronic care conditions or 1 of 6 episodic care conditions. The main outcome was the overall technical quality score. We measured organizational characteristics by use of a validated questionnaire and the Team Climate Inventory. Statistical analyses were based on multilevel regression modelling.Results: The following characteristics were strongly associated with overall technical quality of care score: physician remuneration method (27.0; 95\% confidence interval [CI] 19.0{\textendash}35.0), extent of sharing of administrative resources (7.6; 95\% CI 0.8{\textendash}14.4), presence of allied health professionals (15.3; 95\% CI 5.4{\textendash}25.2) and/or specialist physicians (19.6; 95\% CI 8.3{\textendash}30.9), the presence of mechanisms for maintaining or evaluating competence (7.7; 95\% CI 3.0{\textendash}12.4) and average organizational access to the practice (4.9; 95\% CI 2.6{\textendash}7.2). The number of physicians (1.2; 95\% CI 0.6{\textendash}1.8) and the average Team Climate Inventory score (1.3; 95\% CI 0.1{\textendash}2.5) were modestly associated with high-quality care.Interpretation: We identified a common set of organizational characteristics associated with high-quality primary care. Many of these characteristics are amenable to change through practice-level organizational changes.}, issn = {0820-3946}, URL = {https://www.cmaj.ca/content/185/12/E590}, eprint = {https://www.cmaj.ca/content/185/12/E590.full.pdf}, journal = {CMAJ} }