Patient volume and quality of primary care in Ethiopia: findings from the routine health information system and the 2014 Service Provision Assessment survey

Table 2 Results of a linear regression model of quality of care at the facility level in Ethiopia, 2014, N = 424

	Coefficient ^a	95% CI	p-value
Facility characteristics
Daily outpatient volume ^b
Less than 90.6	0.78	(0.24, 1.32)	0.005**
90.6 +	− 2.34	(−4.18, − 0.50)	0.013*
Number of primary care staff ^c	−0.01	(− 0.04, 0.03)	0.702
Basic equipment ^d	2.01	(0.68, 3.35)	0.003**
Essential medicine index ^e	4.36	(−0.69, 9.41)	0.090
Urban location	−0.98	(−2.63, 0.66)	0.241
Facility type
General hospital	ref.
Primary hospital	−0.16	(−2.65, 2.34)	0.901
Health center	−0.65	(−3.02, 1.73)	0.592
R-squared	0.1518

^a Model includes 11 region fixed effects (not shown).
^b Linear spline with one knot at 90.6 outpatients per day. The estimated difference represents a 100% increase (doubling) in volume.
^c Includes medical doctors, health officers and nurses.
^d Binary indicator for the availability of at least one functional among: scale, pediatric scale, thermometer, stethoscope, BP apparatus and exam light.
^e Average of 19 essential medicines listed in supplementary materials.
* p-value ≤0.05 ** p- value ≤0.01

ISSN: 1472-6963