Study on defining and conceptualizing of general practice: The continuity of primary care / 中国卫生政策研究

ABSTRACT

Continuity of care is one of the core attributes of primary care, which interacts with first-contact, accessibility, coordination and comprehensiveness in a mutual, supportive, and strengthening way to form an interactive mechanism of primary care.This paper first reviews the current literature on definitions and concepts of continuity of care, ascertain the key elements of continuity, and pinpoint the relationship between the dominant and recessive elements.Then, it defines the connotations of continuity of care and their boundaries in the context of primary care, according to the principles of controllability, exhaustion and exclusiveness.Finally it conceptualizes the primary care continuity to lay the foundation for further studies on operationally defining the primary care attributes of general practice.