General Practitioner Encounter Within 7 Days After Hospital Discharge (Percentage of Patients 65+)

Identifying Attributes

Care Settings
Care Transitions
Country
Belgium
Publishing Organisation
Belgian Health Care Knowledge Centre: Performance of the Belgian health system
Type of Quality Indicator
Process
IOM Quality Dimension
Timeliness
Domain
Follow-Up

Defining Attributes

Definition

Proportion of hospital discharge followed with a general practitioner's encounter within a 1-weeks period for senior patients (65+).

Numerator

Number of hospitalisations for elderly patients (65+) with at least one GP's encounter within the week (7 days) following the hospital discharge.

Denominator

Number of hospitalisations for elderly patients (65+), alive 1 week after discharge and without new hospital admission in the week following the discharge.

Exclusions

Stays with a length lower than 24 hours (minimum length of stay); stays followed, within 1 week after discharge, by death or re-hospitalisation; stays which are still ongoing for the period of investigation; stays in patients <65 years in the year of the hospital discharge.

Use of Risk Adjustment
No
Risk Adjustments
Stratifications

Data Attributes

Type of Data Collection
Administrative data
Data Collection Methods

IMA – AIM (InterMutualistisch Agentschap – Agence InterMutualiste) data - billing data collected by all sickness funds, and the IMA – AIM Atlas (an interactive web application) NIHDI billing codes - Condition for the billing is to have at least a contact with the GP during the year. It means that people without any contact during the year are not registered with a GMR even if they still keep their GMR. This phenomenon affects particularly young patient who less often contact the GP a year.

Frequency of Data Collection
Annually
Frequency of Data Collection in Days
365
Reporting Methods

Performance of the Belgium health system report - 2012, 2015, 2019.

Reporting Frequency
Ad libitum
Reporting Frequency in Days
1
Indicator Has Recommended Targets
No

Source and Reference Attributes

Evidence Source

Devos Carl, Cordon Audrey, Lefèvre Mélanie, Obyn Caroline, Renard Françoise, Bouckaert Nicolas, Gerkens Sophie, Maertens de Noordhout Charline, Devleesschauwer Brecht, Haelterman Margareta, Léonard Christian, Meeus Pascal. Performance of the Belgian health system – Report 2019. Health Services Research (HSR). Brussels. Belgian Health Care Knowledge Centre (KCE). 2019. KCE Reports 313. DOI: 10.57598/R313C. kce.fgov.be/sites/default/files/2021-12/KCE313CPerformanceBelgianhealthsystemReport.pdf

Link to Measurement Tools
Quality Indicator Confirmed to be Part of a Program Used to Monitor Quality and Safety of Care Among Older People at a Population-Level between 2012-2022
Yes
Assessed by the Australian Consortium for Aged Care Collaborators as Generally Containing Good Properties (Importance and Scientific Acceptability)
Yes
Australian Consortium for Aged Care Endorsed
No
Identified by PHARMA-Care Project
No
Upload Date
12 March 2025