How infectious disease outbreaks affect community-based primary care physicians: comparing the SARS and H1N1 epidemics.

OBJECTIVE: To compare how the infectious disease outbreaks H1N1 and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) affected community-based GPs and FPs. DESIGN: A mailed survey sent after the H1N1 outbreak compared with the results of similar survey completed after the SARS outbreak. SETTING: Greater Toronto area in Ontario. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 183 randomly selected GPs and FPs who provided office-based care. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The perceptions of GPs and FPs on how serious infectious disease outbreaks affected their clinical work and personal lives; their preparedness for a serious infectious disease outbreak; and the types of information they want to receive and the sources they wanted to receive information from during a serious infectious disease outbreak. The responses from this survey were compared with the responses of GPs and FPs in the greater Toronto area who completed a similar survey in 2003 after the SARS outbreak. RESULTS: After the H1N1 outbreak, GPs and FPs still had substantial concerns about the effects of serious infectious disease outbreaks on the health of their family members. Physicians made changes to various office practices in order to manage and deal with patients with serious infectious diseases. They expressed concerns about the effects of an infectious disease on the provision of health care services. Also, physicians wanted to quickly receive accurate information from the provincial government and their medical associations. CONCLUSION: Serious community-based infectious diseases are a personal concern for GPs and FPs, and have considerable effects on their clinical practice. Further work examining the timely flow of relevant information through different health care sectors and government agencies still needs to be undertaken.

An evaluation of a proactive geriatric trauma consultation service.

OBJECTIVE: To describe and evaluate an inpatient geriatric trauma consultation service (GTCS). BACKGROUND: Delays in recognizing the special needs of older trauma patients may result in suboptimal care. The GTCS is a proactive geriatric consultation model aimed at preventing and managing age-specific complications and discharge planning for all patients 60 years or older admitted to the St Michael's Hospital Trauma Service. METHODS: This was a before and after case series of patients admitted pre-GTCS (March 2005-August 2007) and post-GTCS (September 2007-March 2010). Study data were derived from a review of the medical records and from the St Michael's Hospital trauma registry. Abstracted data included demographics, type of geriatric issues addressed, rate of adherence to recommendations made by the GTCS, geriatric-specific clinical outcomes, trauma quality indicators, consultation requests, and discharge destinations. RESULTS: A total of 238 pre-GTCS patients and 248 post-GTCS patients were identified. The rate of adherence to recommendations made by the GTCS team was 93.2%. There were fewer consultation requests made to Internal Medicine and Psychiatry in the post-GTCS group (N = 31 vs N = 18, P = 0.04; and N = 33 vs N = 18, P = 0.02; respectively). There were no differences in any of the prespecified complications except delirium (50.5% pre-GTCS vs 40.9% post- GTCS, P = 0.05). Among patients admitted from home, fewer were discharged to long-term care facilities among the post-GTCS group (6.5% pre-GTCS vs 1.7% post-GTCS, P = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: A proactive geriatric consultation model for elderly trauma patients may decrease delirium and discharges to long-term care facilities. Future studies should include a multicenter randomized trial of this model of care.