Association between continuity and access in primary care: a retrospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Continuity of care is a tenet of primary care. Our objective was to explore the relation between a change in access to a primary care physician and continuity of care. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study among physicians in a primary care network in southwest Alberta who measured access consistently between 2009 and 2016. We used time to the third next available appointment as a measure of access to physicians. We calculated the provider and clinic continuity, discontinuity and emergency department use based on the physicians' own panels. Physicians who improved, worsened or maintained their level of access within a given year were assessed in multilevel models to determine the association with continuity of care at the physician and clinic levels and the emergency department. RESULTS: We analyzed data from 190 primary care physicians. Physicians with improved access increased provider continuity by 6.8% per year, reduced discontinuity by 2.1% per year, and decreased emergency department encounters by 78 visits per 1000 patients per year compared to physicians with stable access. Physicians with worsening access had a 6.2% decrease in provider continuity and an increased number of emergency department encounters (64 visits per 1000 panelled patients per year) compared to physicians with stable access. INTERPRETATION: Changes in access to primary care can affect whether patients seek care from their own physician, from another clinic or at the emergency department. Improving access by reducing the delay in obtaining an appointment with one's primary care physician may be one mechanism to improve continuity of care.

Innovative and diverse strategies toward primary health care reform: lessons learned from the Canadian experience.

INTRODUCTION: In the last decade, Canadian provincial and territorial health systems have taken diverse approaches to strengthening primary care delivery. Although the Canadian and US systems differ in significant ways, important commonalities include the organization of care delivery, core principles guiding primary care reform, and some degree of provincial/state autonomy. This suggests that Canadian experiences, which employed a variety of tools, strategies, and policies, may be informative for US efforts to improve primary care. INNOVATIONS: The range of primary care reform initiatives implemented across Canada target organizational infrastructure, provider payment, health care workforce, and quality and safety. Primary care teams and networks in which multiple physicians work in concert with other providers have become widespread in some provinces; they vary on a number of dimensions, including physician payment, incorporation of other providers, and formal enrolment of patients. Family medicine is attracting more recent medical school graduates, a trend likely affected by new physician payment models, increases in the number of primary care providers, and efforts to better integrate nonphysician providers into clinical practice. Efforts to integrate electronic medical records into practice and pursue quality improvement strategies are gaining ground in some provinces. CONCLUSIONS: Canadian primary care reform initiatives rely on voluntary participation, incremental change, and diverse models, encouraging engagement and collaboration from a range of stakeholders including patients, providers, and policymakers. Cross-country collaboration in evaluating and translating Canada's primary care reform efforts are likely to yield important lessons for the US experience.

Turning vision into reality: successful integration of primary healthcare in taber, Canada.

Primary healthcare offers significant benefits to Canadians and to the healthcare system as a whole. The Taber Integrated Primary Healthcare Project (TIPHP) was a three-year primary healthcare renewal initiative involving rural physicians and the Chinook Health Region in Taber, Alberta, Canada. The goal of the project was to improve healthcare services delivery through integration of the services provided by the physician group and the health region in one rural community. Four main enablers emerged as fundamental to the integration process: community assessment and shared planning; evidence-based, interdisciplinary care; an integrated electronic information system; and investment in processes and structures that support change.The outcome of the project has been the implementation of a new model of healthcare delivery that embraces an integrated collaborative team approach in delivering population-based, primary healthcare. Importantly, the TIPHP has influenced regional healthcare policy related to primary healthcare renewal strategies and partnerships.