Managing the Primary Care of the Future: Evidence, Gaps, and Desiderata from Italy

Abstract

The demand for care is changing toward more primary care oriented needs. Hence, General Practitioners (GPs) need to redesign their practice, but they do not necessarily know how. The aim of this paper is to understand which competences GPs need in the new healthcare settings. Referring to the competences identified by Bohmer (2010), we performed 16 in-depth interviews with GPs, nurses and assistants working in Italian primary care organizations. The results showed that most competences are at an immature stage of development and some are a prerogative for nurses and assistants. These findings call for actions by the policy makers.