Evaluating general practitioners' views about the implementation of the Enhanced Primary Care Medicare items

Objective: To investigate the issues for general practitioners surrounding the implementation of the Enhanced Primary Care (EPC) Medicare items for health assessments, care planning and case conferencing. Design: Qualitative study of GPs' responses to a semistructured face-to-face interview. Participants and setting: 30 GPs in the South Western Sydney Area. Main outcome measures: GPs' perceptions regarding barriers to coordination of care; use of the EPC items; difficulties with implementation; suggestions for improving EPC implementation; and coordination of care in general practice. Results: Five main categories of response were identified to each area of questioning: time, organisation, Communication, education, and resources. GPs expressed difficulties incorporating use of the items into their daily practice without support. Conclusions: Implementation of the EPC items not only facilitates integration between GPs and other healthcare professionals, it also depends upon other forms of integration to succeed. A facilitator and a structured framework to address issues are required to assist their implementation.