General practice business models with RACFs

There are a variety of general practice business models with RACFs. This chapter outlines five different types of general practice business models.

In the continuity model, GPs continue to provide care for their long-term patients after they move into an RACF. Greater continuity of care has been associated with lower hospital admissions and patient mortality.¹ The continuity model is the RACGP-preferred model for the provision of primary care for older people.

In the RACF panel model, GPs accept new patients in nearby aged care facilities or see all the RACF patients for their practice, allowing them to continuously provide care to a number of RACF patients, referred to as a ‘panel’.²

In the aged care-specific general practice model, GPs regularly provide scheduled care in RACFs. These GPs tend to cluster their patients in a few facilities where they have established a relationship with RACF administration and staff and have substantial panel sizes.

Some RACFs have established relationships with specific GPs to take most patients in a facility who lack a GP willing to provide ongoing care.³

People living in RACFs have high rates of transfer to hospital. Numerous programs have been developed to reduce the rate of acute care service use that are funded by the Australian states and territories that provide these services.