Heilbrigðisskýrslur - 02.12.1974, Qupperneq 57

9.0 SUMMARY IN ENGLISH
The paper describes the results of a study of medical services
in rural Iceland during one week in September 1974.This
represents the first major study of medical services outside
hospitals in Iceland.
The aims of the study were as follows :
a) To collect data on non-hospital medical services.
b) To study the usefulness of a new contact form.
c) To lead the way for further studies,planning and
management of health services.
For this,certain information was collected on healthcenter-patient
contacts and on the working hours of doctors.This was done in two
studies,a preliminary study for one day in May and the main study
from Sept. 16th to Sept. 22nd,during a period when visits by
patients were known to be close to the annual average.The results
of the preliminary study were used to modify the contact form used
in the main study.
The main study was supposed to cover four of the five health
service regions in Iceland,thus covering the whole of the country
except the capital.Questionnaries and other documents were sent
to 62 doctors.of which 49 (79%) replied.
Data from only 4o doctors in 29 health centers are included in
the analysis,representing districts where all doctors replied
and where working for at least five days during the period of
study.
The information recorded included the main reason for contact
and the action taken.The reason for contact was mostly recorded
in accordiance with the international register of diseases,
injuries and causes of death.The action taken was classified
mainly according to the scale of charges of the Icelandic Medical