Open AccessA “Shock Test” to Primary Care Integration: COVID-19 Lessons from Alberta
Author(s) -
Myles Leslie,
Raad Fadaak,
Nicole Pinto,
Jan M. Davies,
Lee A. Green,
Judy Seidel,
John Conly,
Pierre-Gerlier Forest
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
healthcare policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.391
H-Index - 22
eISSN - 1715-6580
pISSN - 1715-6572
DOI - 10.12927/hcpol.2021.26658
Subject(s) - pandemic , covid-19 , shock (circulatory) , personal protective equipment , test (biology) , health care , business , distribution (mathematics) , primary care , medical emergency , public relations , political science , medicine , family medicine , economic growth , economics , paleontology , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty) , mathematical analysis , mathematics , pathology , biology
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed primary care (PC), and policies aimed at integrating it into provincial health systems, to a "shock test." This paper draws on documentary analysis and qualitative interviews with PC and health system stakeholders to examine shifts in Alberta's pre-pandemic PC integration model during the first nine months of the pandemic. We begin with an account of three elements of the province's pre-pandemic model: finance, health authority activity and community activity. We describe these elements as they shifted, focusing on two indicators of change: novel virtual care billing codes and personal protective equipment (PPE) distribution channels. We draw out policy planning lessons for improving PC integration under normal and future pandemic conditions, namely, by facilitating rapid updates of virtual care billing codes, analyses of the impact of care delivery and backstopping of PPE markets and supply chains for PC.