Physician perspectives of the community paramedicine at clinic (CP@clinic) and my care plan app (myCP app) for older adults.

BACKGROUND: Community Paramedicine (CP) is an emerging model of care addressing health problems through non-emergency services. Little evidence exists examining the integration of an app for improved patient, CP, and family physician (FP) communication. This study investigated FP perspectives on the impact of the Community Paramedicine at Clinic (CP@clinic) program on providing patient care and the feasibility and value of a novel "My Care Plan App" (myCP app). METHODS: This retrospective mixed-methods study included an online survey and phone interviews to elucidate FPs ' perspectives on the CP@clinic program and the myCP app, respectively, between January 2021 and May 2021. FPs with patients in the CP@clinic program were recruited to participate. Survey responses were summarized using descriptive statistics, and audio recordings from the interviews thematically analyzed. RESULTS: Thirty-eight FPs completed the survey and 10 FPs completed the phone interviews. 60.5% and 52.6% of FPs reported that the CP@clinic program improved their ability to further screen and diagnose patients for hypertension, respectively (in addition to their regular screening practices). The themes that emerged in the phone interviews were grouped into three topics: app benefits, drawbacks, and integration within practice. Overall, FPs described the myCP app as user-friendly and useful to improve interprofessional communication with CPs. CONCLUSIONS: CP@clinic helped family physicians to screen and monitor chronic disease. The myCP app can impact health service delivery by closing the gap between primary, community, and emergency care through an eHealth information-sharing platform.

Adapting the Community Paramedicine at Clinic (CP@clinic) program to a remote northern first nation community: a qualitative study of community members' and local health care providers' views.

The views of community Elders and health care providers in a rural remote First Nation community in Ontario, Canada on their health care landscape and adapting the Community Paramedicine at Clinic (CP@clinic) Program to their community are presented. Key informant interviews took place between September 2020 and March 2021, and were thematically analysed using the Framework Hierarchical Analysis. There were seven themes that emerged with many subthemes: available services in the community, health care access, health challenges in community, causes of frailty, health care and community appreciations, community-specific benefits of CP@clinic, and CP@clinic program considerations for adaptation. CP@clinic program considerations for adaptation included defining the role of CP, refining referral processes to capture the target population, advertising and promoting, ensuring community awareness, determining clinic setting and composition, focusing on advocacy and timely continuity, adding to the program through time, managing resistance, engaging community and partners, deploying cultural training and language accommodations, leveraging community assets, and ensuring sustainability. Focusing on continuity, engagement, and leveraging available resources may support the success of the CP@clinic program implementation. Findings from this study may be useful to other underserved communities in Canada seeking health programming.