Abstract

In "Organizing Primary Care for an Integrated System" Rosser and Kasperski propose changing the way family physicians practice to address deficiencies in the current primary-care delivery system in Canada. These deficiencies include
  • a growing shortage of physicians, particularly in rural areas of Canada;
  • the growing dependence of Canadians on acute hospital emergency units or "walk-in clinics" for primary care;
  • fragmentation and unnecessary duplication in the delivery of primary-care services;
  • lack of understanding on the part of the community and hospital sectors of the role of the family-practice physician;
  • a fee-for-service funding model that does not reward prevention and health-promotion initiatives by physicians and makes high-volume, minorproblem visits the most lucrative; and
  • lack of clarity with regard to what the public should expect from their physicians.