We deal with a principal-agent model in which the health authority acts as a principal for both a patient and a General Practitioner (GP). In this framework, we study the role of GPs as filters for secondary care, emphasizing the implications that patients' information may have for health...

Patients switching physicians involves costs to the patients because of less continuity of care. From a theoretical model we derive that inferior physician quality as perceived by patients, implies patient shortage for the physician and more patients switching physicians. By means of a unique...

Background: Annalisa (AL) is a web-based decision-support template grounded in multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). It uses a simple expected value algorithm to calculate a score for each option by taking into account the individual's preferences for different criteria (as importance...

The shortage of primary care physicians (PCPs) is a persistent problem in the rural USA. The purpose of the study is to document the differential growth in the supply of selected types of PCPs between rural and urban areas in the USA for the years, 1990, 1995 and 2000. Based on the data from...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the variety of mechanisms applied since 1991 to engage English and Welsh general practitioners (GPs) in local health services planning and implementation. Design/methodology/approach – Three qualitative case studies. Findings – The paper...