Adapting Our SCOPE: Lessons Learned from Spreading and Scaling Efforts to Integrate Care.

SCOPE (Seamless Care Optimizing the Patient Experience) launched in 2012 to support primary care in downtown Toronto with live navigation and rapid access to acute and community care resources for primary care providers (PCPs) and their patients. Ten years later, over 1,800 PCPs across Ontario have signed up for SCOPE and over 48,000 interactions in the form of e-mail, fax, phone and secure messaging have been conducted. Case examples illustrate the ways in which SCOPE has been adapted across a range of Ontario Health Teams, including under-resourced, small urban and rural sites. Primary care engagement, change management strategies and flexibility to meet the individual needs of each site have been key factors in the successful spread and scale of SCOPE's services.

Family physician practice patterns during COVID-19 and future intentions: Cross-sectional survey in Ontario, Canada.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the extent to which family physicians closed their doors altogether or for in-person visits during the pandemic, their future practice intentions, and related factors. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Six geographic areas in Toronto, Ont, aligned with Ontario Health Team regions. PARTICIPANTS: Family doctors practising office-based, comprehensive family medicine. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Practice operations in January 2021, use of virtual care, and future plans. RESULTS: Of the 1016 (85.7%) individuals who responded to the survey, 99.7% (1001 of 1004) indicated their practices were open in January 2021, with 94.8% (928 of 979) seeing patients in person and 30.8% (264 of 856) providing in-person care to patients reporting COVID-19 symptoms. Respondents estimated spending 58.2% of clinical care time on telephone visits, 5.8% on video appointments, and 7.5% on e-mail or secure messaging. Among respondents, 17.5% (77 of 439) were planning to close their existing practices in the next 5 years. There were higher proportions of physicians who worked alone in clinics among those who did not see patients in person (27.6% no vs 12.4% yes, P<.05), among those who did not see symptomatic patients (15.6% no vs 6.5% yes, P<.001), and among those who planned to close their practices in the next 5 years (28.9% yes vs 13.9% no, P<.01). CONCLUSION: Most family physicians in Toronto were open to in-person care in January 2021, but almost one-fifth were considering closing their practices in the next 5 years. Policy makers need to prepare for a growing family physician shortage and better understand factors that support recruitment and retention.

A developmental evaluation of an intraprofessional Pharmacy Communication Partnership (PROMPT) to improve transitions in care from hospital to community: A mixed-methods study.

BACKGROUND: People transitioning from hospital- to community-based care are at increased risk of experiencing medication problems that can lead to adverse drug events and poor health outcomes. Community pharmacists provide medication expertise and support during care transitions yet are not routinely included in communications between hospitals and other primary health care providers. The PhaRmacy COMmunication ParTnership (PROMPT) intervention facilitates medication management by optimizing information sharing between pharmacists across care settings. This developmental evaluation sought to assess the feasibility and acceptability of implementing the PROMPT intervention, and to explore how contextual factors influenced its implementation. METHODS: PROMPT was implemented for 14 weeks (January-April, 2018) in the general internal medicine units at two teaching hospitals in Toronto, Canada. PROMPT featured two contact points between hospital and community pharmacists around patient discharge: (1) faxing an enhanced discharge prescription and discharge summary to a patient's community pharmacy and (2) a follow-up phone call from the hospital pharmacist to the community pharmacist. Our mixed-method evaluation involved electronic patient records, process measures using tracking forms, telephone surveys and semi-structured interviews with participating community and hospital pharmacists. RESULTS: The intervention involved 45 patients with communication between 12 hospital and 45 community pharmacists. Overall, the intervention had challenges with feasibility. Issues with fidelity included challenges with the medical discharge summary being available at the time of faxing and hospital pharmacists' difficulties with incorporating novel elements of the program into their existing practices. However, both community and hospital pharmacists recognized the potential benefits to patient care that PROMPT offered, and both groups proposed recommendations for further improvements. Suggestions included enhancing hospital staffing and resources. CONCLUSION: Improving intraprofessional collaboration, through interventions such as PROMPT, positions pharmacists as leaders of medication management services across care settings and has the potential to improve patient care; however, more co-design work is needed to enhance the intervention and its fidelity.

Building a Primary Care Community of Practice: SCOPE as a Platform for Care Integration and System Transformation.

Strong primary care plays a foundational role in a high-functioning health system. Primary care is the main entry point to the healthcare system for patients, but in many health systems, the majority of primary care practices and physicians are functionally disconnected from, and not meaningfully integrated with, specialist care, hospital resources or team-based allied professionals. Here, we detail how a grassroots program in the Greater Toronto Area, known as SCOPE (Seamless Care Optimizing the Patient Experience), has worked to build and grow a community of practice among physicians who were previously "unaffiliated" to provide streamlined access to specialist care and virtual team-based resources. Notably, through purposeful engagement efforts, this community of practice has led to new patient-facing initiatives that respond to primary care needs. This improved integration of primary care with both hospital-based resources and specialty services, along with the initiation of new services that address population needs, demonstrates the value of this type of purposeful engagement to develop a primary care community of practice.

An Integrated Kidney Care eConsult Practice Model: Results from the iKinect Project.

BACKGROUND: Collaborative management of kidney disease relies on coordinated and effective partnerships between multiple provider teams. Siloed care contributes to limited access between physicians, resulting in delays in the diagnosis and treatment of kidney disease and inappropriate use of healthcare resources. These gaps contribute to dissatisfied and disempowered providers and patients. Digital systems such as eConsult can support collaborative management and address these gaps, thereby streamlining the consultation and referral process between primary care physicians (PCPs) and nephrologists. In this study, we evaluated an established eConsult platform integrated with a central triage process for a network of PCPs and nephrologists. The study aimed to assess the acceptability, feasibility, and impact on access to nephrology when using eConsult integrated into the management of kidney disease between PCPs and nephrologists. METHODS: We conducted a 1-year pilot study and used mixed methods to measure the acceptability and feasibility of using eConsult for the management of kidney disease. We compared eConsult and traditional referrals with respect to types of consultation, referrals, and times to response to determine impact on access to kidney care. We conducted semi-structured interviews of PCPs and nephrologists to assess physician experience. RESULTS: From January 8, 2018, to January 11, 2019, 52 PCPs and 23 nephrologists participated in the study, with 250 traditional referrals and 106 eConsults submitted during that period. The median response time for eConsult was 15 (3-64) h, with 25% originating outside the central Toronto region. The median time to first clinic appointment from a traditional referral was 4 months (111 [61-163] days). PCP and nephrologist interviews revealed high user satisfaction, citing efficiency and timely response as key facilitators. CONCLUSION: The eConsult platform was acceptable, feasible, and facilitated access to nephrology care compared to traditional referrals. Physicians report improvements in physician care delivery, nephrology care gaps, patient experience, and healthcare utilization.

Connecting People With Multimorbidity to Interprofessional Teams Using Telemedicine.

PURPOSE: Most models for managing chronic disease focus on single diseases. Managing patients with multimorbidity is an increasing challenge in family medicine. We evaluated the feasibility of a novel approach to caring for patients with multimorbidity, performing a case study of TIP-Telemedicine IMPACT (Interprofessional Model of Practice for Aging and Complex Treatments) Plus-a 1-time interprofessional consultation with primary care physicians (PCPs) and their patients in Toronto, Canada. METHODS: We assessed feasibility of the TIP model from the number of referrals from PCPs and emergency departments in Toronto, Canada; the intervention cost; and the satisfaction of patients, PCPs, and team members with the new model. One patient and PCP story highlights the model's impact. We also performed thematic analysis of written feedback. RESULTS: A total of 76 patients were referred from 53 PCPs and 4 emergency departments, and 65 PCPs participated in TIP. All 74 patient survey respondents indicated TIP improved their access to interdisciplinary resources, and 97% reported feeling hopeful their conditions would improve as a result. Of 21 PCP survey respondents, 100% reported they would use TIP again, and 90% reported improved confidence in managing their patient's care. Of 87 team member survey respondents, 97% rated TIP as effective. Qualitative findings indicated benefits to both patients and health professionals. The cost was about 22% less than that of a 1-day hospital admission through the emergency department (C$854 vs C$1,088). CONCLUSIONS: TIP is a feasible intervention in multiple primary care settings that gives patients an active role in their health management, supported by their team. The model effectively addresses the needs of the most complex patients and their PCPs.

Enhanced communication between inpatient and community pharmacists to optimize medication management during transitions of care.

OBJECTIVES: To describe the Pharmacy Communication Partnership (PROMPT) program's approach to improving medication management for patients during transitions from hospital to the community. SETTING: Two general internal medicine units within a multisite academic hospital in Canada. PRACTICE INNOVATION: Designed by an interprofessional working group, PROMPT uses evidence-informed approaches to facilitate communication between pharmacists in different settings: faxing of the discharge prescription and medical discharge summary to a patient's community pharmacy, followed by a telephone call to the community pharmacist. EVALUATION: A multimethod cross-sectional study used telephone surveys and retrospective chart reviews to describe: 1) the characteristics of patients that hospital pharmacists thought would benefit from PROMPT and the community pharmacies that served them; 2) the number and nature of communication attempts made by community and hospital pharmacists; and 3) community pharmacists' views about PROMPT's potential impact on continuity of care and potential program enhancements. RESULTS: A convenience sample of 100 patients (median age 77 years, interquartile range 66 to 83) who received care from 86 pharmacies were used to evaluate the program. The majority of community pharmacists participating in the surveys considered the intervention to be helpful. Of the 53.7% (n = 44/82) community pharmacists who received discharge summaries, 93.2% (n = 41/44) found the summaries to be useful. Themes arising from community pharmacists' comments were categorized into 3 topics: 1) the benefits of PROMPT; 2) topics of discussion and clarification during telephone calls with hospital pharmacists; and 3) future program improvements. CONCLUSION: Community pharmacists described PROMPT as a time-efficient and helpful bridge linking community pharmacy to hospital inpatient care. Opportunities for future research include determining the characteristics of patients who may benefit most from PROMPT, determining the optimal components of discharge information needed by community pharmacists to enhance medication management, and evaluating whether follow-up telephone calls from the hospital to community pharmacists are necessary for all patients.

Engaging primary care physicians in care coordination for patients with complex medical conditions.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the dynamics of primary care physicians' (PCPs') engagement with the Seamless Care Optimizing the Patient Experience (SCOPE) project. DESIGN: Qualitative study using semistructured interviews. SETTING: Solo and small group primary care practices in urban Toronto, Ont. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 22 of the 29 SCOPE PCPs (75.8%) were interviewed 14 to 19 months after the initiation of SCOPE. METHODS: Qualitative semistructured interviews were conducted to examine influencing factors associated with PCPs' engagement in SCOPE. Transcripts were analyzed using a grounded theory-informed approach and key themes were identified. MAIN FINDINGS: The SCOPE project provided practical mechanisms through which PCPs could access information and connect with resources. Contextual and historical factors including strained relationships between hospital specialists and community PCPs and PCPs' feelings of responsibility, isolation, disconnection, and burnout influenced readiness to engage. Provision of clinically useful supports in a trusting, collaborative manner encouraged PCPs' engagement in newer, more collaborative ways of working. CONCLUSION: The SCOPE project provided an opportunity for PCPs to build meaningful relationships, reconnect to the broader health care system, and redefine their roles. For many PCPs, reestablishing connections reaffirmed their role in the system and enabled a more collaborative care model. Strategies for connecting community-based PCPs to the broader system need to consider contextual factors and the effects of new linkages and coordination on the identities and relationships of PCPs.

Implementation and adaptation of a hub-based psychiatric and primary care program: A qualitative descriptive analysis of The Seamless Care Optimizing the Patient Experience (SCOPE) Mental Health program.

BACKGROUND: The Seamless Care Optimizing the Patient Experience (SCOPE)-Mental Health program is a comprehensive case management and psychiatric care initiative that supports primary care physicians in independent medical practices. This program offers a range of services that aims to enhance primary care capacity for mental health and provide accessible clinical care for patients. With its flexible hub-based approach, this program allows participating sites to tailor their implementation based on their available resources and specific needs within their community. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this quality improvement initiative was to investigate the evolution of this collaborative mental health model, focusing on specific site adaptations, local implementation challenges, and opportunities for ongoing development and sustainability across SCOPE sites in the Greater Toronto Area. METHOD: This evaluation employed a qualitative descriptive design where semi-structured interviews, guided by the Reach Effectiveness Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance framework were conducted with staff from all 8 SCOPE-Mental Health sites. Site representatives were interviewed virtually between March and July 2023 and data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. FINDINGS: The SCOPE-Mental Health model permits flexibility through specific local adaptations led by community need that leverage existing assets either at the site or within the individual community. Adoption by primary care physicians was crucial to program success and facilitated efficiency and interprofessional collaboration. Maintenance efforts included pathway refinement, and marketing and funding considerations. Challenges to program development included continuity of staff, physician compensation issues, and electronic health record interoperability. The SCOPE-Mental Health program fosters linkages among unaffiliated primary care offices, hospitals, and community-based resources to improve mental health care. Key recommendations include advocating for sustainable funding and facilitated mechanisms for psychiatric consultations. CONCLUSIONS: This initiative offers valuable insights for healthcare organizations seeking to develop similar programs, emphasizing the need for tailored approaches and ongoing evaluation to ensure a lasting impact in underserved communities.

Maximizing the locum experience.

Back from holiday and my secretaries report that the locum saw patients in a timely manner, responded to messages (especially urgent requests), and filled prescriptions efficiently. Our nurses acknowledge reciprocal working relationships with the locum. My in-box is organized with abnormal test results highlighted and clarity regarding follow-up. Cases are well documented, particularly the handling of challenging issues. Patients provide positive feedback regarding patient-centred care. I do not discover any overlooked test results. The time orienting the locum and reviewing the contract was time well spent.

A Novel Collaborative Care Program to Augment Nursing Home Care During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic created an immediate need to enhance current efforts to reduce transfers of nursing home (NH) residents to acute care. Long-Term Care Plus (LTC+), a collaborative care program developed and implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, aimed to enhance care in the NH setting while also decreasing unnecessary acute care transfers. Using a hub-and-spoke model, LTC+ was implemented in 6 hospitals serving as central hubs to 54 geographically associated NHs with 9574 beds in Toronto, Canada. LTC+ provided NHs with the following: (1) virtual general internal medicine (GIM) consultations; (2) nursing navigator support; (3) rapid access to laboratory and diagnostic imaging services; and (4) educational resources. From April 2020 to June 2021, LTC+ provided 381 GIM consultations that addressed abnormal bloodwork (15%), cardiac problems (13%), and unexplained fever (11%) as the most common reasons for consultation. Sixty-five nurse navigator calls addressed requests for non-GIM specialist consultations (34%), wound care assessments (14%), and system navigation (12%). One hundred seventy-seven (46%, 95% CI 41%-52%) consults addressed care concerns sufficiently to avoid the need for acute care transfer. All 36 primary care physicians who consulted the LTC+ program reported strong satisfaction with the advice provided. Early results demonstrate the feasibility and acceptability of an integrated care model that enhances care delivery for NH residents where they reside and has the potential to positively impact the long-term care sector by ensuring equitable and timely access to care for people living in NHs. It represents an important step toward health system integration that values the expertise within the long-term care sector.

Opportunity to inform social needs within a hospital setting using data-driven patient engagement.

BACKGROUND: High-risk patients account for a disproportionate amount of healthcare use, necessitating the development of care delivery solutions aimed specifically at reducing this use. These interventions have largely been unsuccessful, perhaps due to a lack of attention to patients' social needs and engagement of patients in developing solutions. METHODS: The project team used a combination of administrative data, information culled from charts and interviews with high-risk patients to understand social needs, the current experience of addressing social needs in the hospital, and patient preferences and identified opportunities for improvement. Interviews were conducted in March and April 2020, and patients were asked to reflect on their experiences both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS: A total of 4579 patients with 26 168 visits to the emergency department and 2904 inpatient admissions in the previous year were identified. Qualitative analysis resulted in three themes: (1) the interaction between social needs, demographics, and health; (2) the hospital's role in addressing social needs; and (3) the impact of social needs on experiences of care. Themes related to experiences before and during COVID-19 did not differ. Three opportunities were identified: (1) training for staff related to stigma and trauma, (2) improved documentation of social needs and (3) creation of navigation programmes. DISCUSSION: Certain demographic factors were clearly associated with an increased need for social support. Unfortunately, many factors identified by patients as mediating their need for such support were not consistently captured. Going forward, high-risk patients should be included in the development of quality improvement initiatives and programmes to address social needs.

Patient-centred innovation for multimorbidity care: a mixed-methods, randomised trial and qualitative study of the patients' experience.

BACKGROUND: Patient-centred interventions to help patients with multimorbidity have had mixed results. AIM: To assess the effectiveness of a provider-created, patient-centred, multi-provider case conference with follow-up, and understand under what circumstances it worked, and did not work. DESIGN AND SETTING: Mixed-methods design with a pragmatic randomised trial and qualitative study, involving nine urban primary care sites in Ontario, Canada. METHOD: Patients aged 18-80 years with ≥3 chronic conditions were referred to the Telemedicine IMPACT Plus intervention; a nurse and patient planned a multi-provider case conference during which a care plan could be created. The patients were randomised into an intervention or control group. Two subgroup analyses and a fidelity assessment were conducted, with the primary outcomes at 4 months being self-management and self-efficacy. Secondary outcomes were mental and physical health status, quality of life, and health behaviours. A thematic analysis explored the patients' experiences of the intervention. RESULTS: A total of 86 patients in the intervention group and 77 in the control group showed no differences, except that the intervention improved mental health status in the subgroup with an annual income of ≥C$50 000 (ß-coefficient 11.003, P = 0.006). More providers and follow-up hours were associated with poorer outcomes. Five themes were identified in the qualitative study: valuing the team, patients feeling supported, receiving a follow-up plan, being offered new and helpful additions to their treatment regimen, and experiencing positive outcomes. CONCLUSION: Overall, the intervention showed improvements only for patients who had an annual income of ≥C$50 000, implying a need to address the costs of intervention components not covered by existing health policies. Findings suggest a need to optimise team composition by revising the number and type of providers according to patient preferences and to enhance the hours of nurse follow-up to better support the patient in carrying out the case conference's recommendations.

A multifaceted primary care practice-based intervention to reduce ED visits and hospitalization for complex medical patients: A mixed methods study.

BACKGROUND: The management of complex, multi-morbid patients is challenging for solo primary care providers (PCPs) with limited access to resources. The primary objective of the intervention was to reduce the overall rate of Emergency Department (ED) visits among patients in participating practices. METHODS AND FINDINGS: An interrupted time series design and qualitative interviews were used to evaluate a multifaceted intervention, SCOPE (Seamless Care Optimizing the Patient Experience), offered to solo PCPs whose patients were frequent users of the ED. The intervention featured a navigation hub (nurse, homecare coordinator) to link PCPs with hospital and community resources, a general internist on-call to provide phone advice or urgent assessments, and access to patient results on-line. Continuous quality improvement (QI) strategies were employed to optimize each component of the intervention. The primary outcome was the relative pre-post intervention change in ED visit rate for patients of participating practices compared with that for a propensity-matched control group of physicians over the contemporaneous period. Themes were identified from semi-structured interviews on PCP's experiences and influential factors in their engagement. Twenty-nine physicians agreed to participate and were provided access to the intervention over an 18-month time period. There were a total of 1,525 intervention contacts over the 18-months (average: 50.6±60.8 per PCP). Both intervention and control groups experienced a trend towards lower rates of ED use by their patients over the study time period. The pre-post difference in trend for the intervention group compared to the controls was not significant at 1.4% per year (RR = 1.014; p = 0.59). Several themes were identified from qualitative interviews including: PCPs felt better supported in the care of their patients; they experienced a greater sense of community, and; they were better able to provide shared primary-specialty care. CONCLUSIONS: This multifaceted intervention to support solo PCPs in the management of their complex patients did not result in a reduced rate of ED visits compared to controls, likely related to variable uptake among PCPs. It did however result in more comprehensive and coordinated care for their patients. Future directions will focus on increasing uptake by improving ease of use, increasing the range of services offered and expanding to a larger number of PCPs.

Improving System Integration: The Art and Science of Engaging Small Community Practices in Health System Innovation.

UNLABELLED: This paper focuses on successful engagement strategies in recruiting and retaining primary care physicians (PCPs) in a quality improvement project, as perceived by family physicians in small practices. Sustained physician engagement is critical for quality improvement (QI) aiming to enhance health system integration. Although there is ample literature on engaging physicians in hospital or team-based practice, few reports describe factors influencing engagement of community-based providers practicing with limited administrative support. The PCPs we describe participated in SCOPE: Seamless Care Optimizing the Patient Experience, a QI project designed to support their care of complex patients and reduce both emergency department (ED) visits and inpatient admissions. SCOPE outcome measures will inform subsequent papers. All the 30 participating PCPs completed surveys assessing perceptions regarding the importance of specific engagement strategies. Project team acknowledgement that primary care is challenging and new access to patient resources were the most important factors in generating initial interest in SCOPE. The opportunity to improve patient care via integration with other providers was most important in their commitment to participate, and a positive experience with project personnel was most important in their continued engagement. Our experience suggests that such providers respond well to personalized, repeated, and targeted engagement strategies.

Prescribing patterns for Alzheimer disease: survey of Canadian family physicians.

OBJECTIVE: To describe Canadian family physicians' prescribing practices with regard to Alzheimer disease (AD). DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey administered by facsimile. SETTING: Four regions in Canada (British Columbia, the Prairie Provinces, Ontario, and the Atlantic Provinces). PARTICIPANTS: A stratified random sample of 1000 Canadian family physicians (250 per region) chosen from the Canadian Medical Directory; 81 of whom were excluded as ineligible. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Prescribing practices regarding cholinesterase inhibitors (ChIs) for patients with AD. RESULTS: Response rate was 36.3%. About 27% of respondents reported that ChIs were prescribed for less than 10% of their AD patients, while 12.5% reported that ChIs were prescribed for more than 90% of their AD patients. More physicians prescribed ChIs in the two regions with provincial formulary coverage (Prairie Provinces and Ontario) than in the two regions without coverage (British Columbia and Atlantic Provinces). Factors that significantly predicted lower prescribing rates included female sex, perception of ChIs' effectiveness, and self-reported knowledge of ChIs. CONCLUSION: Canadian physicians' prescribing patterns for ChIs vary; the optimal prescribing rate is unclear. Provincial coverage of these drugs along with physicians' sex, knowledge of ChIs, and perception of the effectiveness of ChIs appear to influence prescribing rates.