Assessment, referral and management of obstructive sleep apnea by Australian general practitioners: a qualitative analysis

Grivell, N.; Haycock, J.; Redman, A.; Vakulin, A.; Zwar, N.; Stocks, N.; Frank, O.; Reed, R.; Chai-Coetzer, C.L.; Grunstein, R.R.; McEvoy, R.D.; Hoon, E.

doi:10.1186/s12913-021-07274-7

Assessment, referral and management of obstructive sleep apnea by Australian general practitioners: a qualitative analysis

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2021

Authors

Grivell, N.

Haycock, J.

Redman, A.

Vakulin, A.

Zwar, N.

Stocks, N.

Frank, O.

Reed, R.

Chai-Coetzer, C.L.

Grunstein, R.R.

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Journal article

Citation

BMC Health Services Research, 2021; 21(1):1248-1248

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Nicole Grivell, Jenny Haycock, Anne Redman, Andrew Vakulin, Nicholas Zwar, Nigel Stocks ... et al.

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10.1186/s12913-021-07274-7

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The high and increasing demand for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) care has exceeded the capacity of specialist sleep services prompting consideration of whether general practitioners could have an enhanced role in service delivery. However, little is known about the current involvement, experiences and attitudes of Australian general practitioners towards OSA. The purpose of this study was to provide an in-depth analysis of Australian general practitioners' experiences and opinions regarding their care of patients with OSA to inform the design and implementation of new general practice models of care. METHODS: Purposive sampling was used to recruit participants with maximum variation in age, experience and location. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and were analysed using Thematic Analysis. RESULTS: Three major themes were identified: (1) General practitioners are important in recognising symptoms of OSA and facilitating a diagnosis by others; (2) Inequities in access to the assessment and management of OSA; and (3) General practitioners currently have a limited role in the management of OSA. CONCLUSIONS: When consulting with patients with symptoms of OSA, general practitioners see their primary responsibility as providing a referral for diagnosis by others. General practitioners working with patients in areas of greater need, such as rural/remote areas and those of socio-economic disadvantage, demonstrated interest in being more involved in OSA management. Inequities in access to assessment and management are potential drivers for change in future models of care for OSA in general practice.

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© The Author(s). 2021 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

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https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-021-07274-7

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https://hdl.handle.net/2440/133382

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Assessment, referral and management of obstructive sleep apnea by Australian general practitioners: a qualitative analysis

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