The primary care COVID-19 integrated pathway: a rapid response to health and social impacts of COVID-19.
BMC Prim Care
; 23(1): 333, 2022 12 20.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2196054
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The first wave of COVID-19 in Calgary, Alberta accelerated the integration of primary care with the province's centrally managed health system. This integration aimed to deliver wraparound in-community patient care through two interventions that combined to create the COVID-19 Integrated Pathway (CIP). The CIP's interventions were 1) a data sharing platform that ensured COVID-19 test results were directly available to family physicians (FPs), and 2) a clinical algorithm that supported FPs in delivering in-community follow up to improve patient outcomes. We describe the CIP function and its capacity to facilitate FP follow-up with COVID-19 patients and evaluate its impact on Emergency Department (ED) visits and hospitalization.METHOD:
We generated descriptive statistics by analyzing data from a Calgary Zone hub clinic called the Calgary COVID-19 Care Clinic (C4), provincially maintained records of hospitalization, ED visits, and physician claims.RESULTS:
Between Apr. 16 and Sep. 27, 2020, 7289 patients were referred by the Calgary Public Health team to the C4 clinic. Of those, 48.6% were female, the median age was 37.4 y. 97% of patients had at least one visit with a healthcare professional, where follow-up was conducted using the CIP's algorithm. 5.1% of patients visited an ED and 1.9% were hospitalized within 30 days of diagnosis. 75% of patients had a median of 4 visits with their FP.DISCUSSION:
Our data suggest that information exchange between Primary Care (PC) and central systems facilitates primary care-based management of patients with COVID-19 in the community and has potential to reduce acute care visits.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Physicians
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Language:
English
Journal:
BMC Prim Care
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S12875-022-01916-3
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS