General practitioner management of shoulder pain in comparison with rheumatologist expectation of care and best evidence: an Australian national survey

To determine whether current care for common shoulder problems in Australian general practice is in keeping with rheumatologist expectations and the best available evidence. We performed a mailed survey of a random sample of 3500 Australian GPs and an online survey of all 270 rheumatologists in Aust...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2013-04, Vol.8 (4), p.e61243-e61243
Main Authors: Buchbinder, Rachelle, Staples, Margaret P, Shanahan, E Michael, Roos, Juliana F
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Arthritis
Australia
Bursitis - drug therapy
Bursitis - surgery
Data Collection
Disease management
Distension
Evidence-based medicine
Family medicine
Family physicians
General practitioners
General Practitioners - statistics & numerical data
Glucocorticoids
Glucocorticoids - therapeutic use
Health care
Hospitals
Humans
Joint and ligament injuries
Joint diseases
Management
Medical prognosis
Medical referrals
Medicare
Medicine
Pain
Pain management
Patients
Polls & surveys
Preventive medicine
Primary care
Public health
Rheumatology
Rheumatology - methods
Rotator Cuff - surgery
Shoulder
Shoulder Joint - surgery
Shoulder pain
Shoulder Pain - drug therapy
Shoulder Pain - surgery
Surveys
Systematic review
Tearing
Ultrasound
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Summary:To determine whether current care for common shoulder problems in Australian general practice is in keeping with rheumatologist expectations and the best available evidence. We performed a mailed survey of a random sample of 3500 Australian GPs and an online survey of all 270 rheumatologists in Australia in June 2009. Each survey included four vignettes (first presentation of shoulder pain due to rotator cuff tendinopathy, acute rotator cuff tear in a 45 year-old labourer and early and later presentation of adhesive capsulitis). For each vignette, GPs were asked to indicate their management, rheumatologists were asked to indicate appropriate primary care, and we determined best available evidence from relevant Cochrane and other systematic reviews and published guidelines. Data were available for at least one vignette for 614/3500 (17.5%) GPs and 64 (23.8%) rheumatologists. For first presentation of rotator cuff tendinopathy, 69% and 82% of GPs and 50% and 56% rheumatologists would order a shoulder X-ray and ultrasound respectively (between group comparisons P = 0.004 and P
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0061243