Coordinating Teams in Primary Health Care.

Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Status: Completed

Conditions: Musculoskeletal Diseases

Treatments: Other: usual primary health care; Other: coordinating primary health care

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02020772

2012/1232

Details and patient eligibility

About

Patients who suffer from musculoskeletal pain often have more than one diagnosis. These patients mostly have to wait a long time for the doctor's examination and treatment, and they also often have a sick leave for a long period of time. The investigators expect that treatment and follow-up by an coordinating interdisciplinary team can improve these patients opportunity to function, increase their quality of life, and decrease their pain. The purpose of this study is to investigate if use of a coordinating interdisciplinary team in primary health care will result in reduced sick leave compared with practice as usual, and give fewer referrals to specialized health services and private rehabilitation centers. Research data will be obtained from the patients journals, questionnaires, and clinical examinations..

Enrollment: 969 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 21 to 58 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• patient in one of the participating general practices
• musculoskeletal complaints in 3 years before start of this study
• informed consent

Exclusion criteria

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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969 participants in 4 patient groups

coordinating primary health care 1

Experimental group

Description:

musculoskeletal pain care by a coordinating team of one general practitioner and two physical therapists

Treatment:

Other: coordinating primary health care

usual primary health care 1

Active Comparator group

Description:

usual care of musculoskeletal pain in general practice

Treatment:

Other: usual primary health care

coordinating primary health care 2

Experimental group

Description:

musculoskeletal pain care by a coordinating team of one general practitioner and two physical therapists

Treatment:

Other: coordinating primary health care

usual primary health care 2

Active Comparator group

Description:

usual care of musculoskeletal pain in general practice

Treatment:

Other: usual primary health care