Time and feasibility of prevention in primary care

BACKGROUND Prevention is an essential task in primary care. According to primary care physicians (PCPs),lack of time is one of the principal obstacles to its performance. OBJECTIVE To assess the feasibility of prevention in terms of time by estimating the time necessary to perform all of the preventive care recommended, separately from the PCPs and patient's perspectives, and to compare them to the amount of time available. METHODS A review of the literature identified the prevention procedures recommended in France, the duration of each procedure and its recommended frequency, as well as PCPs' consultation time. A hypothetical patient panel size of 1000 patients, representative of the Fren…