What is gatekeeping in health care?

Gatekeeping is the term used to describe the role of primary care physicians or general practitioners (GPs) in authorising access to specialty care, hospital care, and diagnostic tests.

How does gatekeeping worsen healthcare?

Gatekeeping clearly alters the channels by which patients receive care: it is associated with more first contact with a general practitioner or a primary care physician and, consequently, less self referral. Less certain is whether it changes practitioners’ behaviour.

Why is gatekeeping important healthcare?

The findings show that gatekeeping often results in lower health expenditure and health use for health services because it controls costs associated with unnecessary expensive specialist care and resource use.

Is gatekeeping in healthcare unethical?

HMO plans with “at-risk capitated gatekeepers” are unethical because they conflict with physicians’ inherent responsiblity to represent the interests of their patients. They are also unethical because patients are not told that medical decisions may be influenced by outside financial pressures on the physician.

What are gatekeepers in research?

A gatekeeper is a person who stands between the data collector and a potential respondent. Gatekeepers, by virtue of their personal or work relationship to a respondent, are able to control who has access, and when, to the respondent.

Why are gatekeepers important in research?

Within this process, gatekeepers have a key role to ensure researchers gain access to potential participants and sites for research. Positive influences of the gatekeepers can be invaluable to the research process by facilitating the smooth running of research activity to completion.

Does gatekeeping improve quality of care?

Gatekeeping was associated with better quality of care and appropriate referral for further hospital visits and investigation. However, one study reported unfavourable outcomes for patients with cancer under gatekeeping, and some concerns were raised about the accuracy of diagnoses made by gatekeepers.

What is the significance of gatekeeping in regard to primary care and keeping health care costs down?

Explain the significance of gatekeeping in regards to primary care and keeping health care costs down. Gatekeeping lowers costs by eliminating unnecessary trips to specialists and incurring higher prescription costs and health assessment expenses.

What is gatekeeping in research?

A gatekeeper is a person who stands between the data collector and a potential respondent. For studies in which children are the intended respondents, parents may be considered gatekeepers in that their consent must be obtained for the child’s participation in the study.

What is an example of a gatekeeper in research?

The following are examples of gatekeepers. Doctors arbitrate an ill person’s access to a sick role. Publishers arbitrate a writers access to the profession of author. Art critics and dealers act as arbiters of acceptable or desirable (collectable) paintings.

What’s the opposite of gatekeeping?

Stewardship is having a level of experience and taking responsibility for elevating others to the same level of expertise. Stewardship is being entrusted with what’s in your care, like your craft, and guiding others through a path that empowers them to be entrusted with the same.

Gatekeeping is the process of allowing or denying another person access to someone or something (Holloway and Wheeler, 2002). As well as occurring in health, it also occurs in health care research.

What is the evidence for gatekeeping in healthcare?

The evidence regarding the effects of gatekeeping is of limited quality and the effects on health and patient-related outcomes have been studied only exceptionally. The available evidence indicates that gatekeeping is associated with lower utilization of health services (up to −78%) and lower expenditures (up to −80%).

Does gatekeeping affect health care utilization and expenditures?

The available evidence indicates that gatekeeping is associated with lower utilization of health services (up to −78%) and lower expenditures (up to −80%). However, there was great variability in the magnitude and direction of the differences.

Does the gatekeeper function affect patient-related outcomes?

We included only studies in which the gatekeeper function was exercised by a physician and that reported health and patient-related outcomes including quality of life and satisfaction, quality of care, health care utilization, and/or economic outcomes (e.g. expenditures or efficiency).