Patient assessment of chronic illness care in the Family Medicine Outpatient Clinic, Suez Canal University, Egypt

Aim This study aimed to assess chronic illness care presented to chronically ill patients in a family medicine clinic to improve quality of care. Subjects and methods It is a cross-sectional descriptive analytic study, conducted between February and April 2016, in the Family Medicine Outpatient Clinic, Suez Canal University, Egypt. Consecutive patients presented to clinic in the period of study included till fulfill sample size (270 patients). They filled validated questionnaire of Patient Assessment of Chronic Illness Care (PACIC-5As) and socio-demographic characteristics. Results The overall PACIC score and 5As mean score was 2.7. Problem Solving/Contextual subscale produced the highest mean 3.1, while Patient Activation had the lowest mean 2.4. For the 5As scales, the study revealed that there were significant differences among the subscales. The Arrange subscale (M = 2.4) was lower than all other 5As subscales with the highest being the Assist subscale (M = 3.2). There was an association between socio-demographic characteristics specifically gender, education and medical characters with PACIC scores. Conclusions There is a deficiency in chronic illness care presented, especially patient activation which is important bulk in care of chronic diseases and there is a need for training of the health care providers about the Chronic Care Model for better patient activation and improvement in the quality of chronic care.