RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Family Physicians Stopping Practice During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Ontario, Canada
JF The Annals of Family Medicine
JO Ann Fam Med
FD American Academy of Family Physicians
SP 460
OP 463
DO 10.1370/afm.2865
VO 20
IS 5
A1 Kiran, Tara
A1 Green, Michael E.
A1 Wu, C. Fangyun
A1 Kopp, Alexander
A1 Latifovic, Lidija
A1 Frymire, Eliot
A1 Moineddin, Rahim
A1 Glazier, Richard H.
YR 2022
UL http://www.annfammed.org/content/20/5/460.abstract
AB We conducted 2 analyses using administrative data to understand whether more family physicians in Ontario, Canada stopped working during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with previous years. First, we found 3.1% of physicians working in 2019 (n = 385/12,247) reported no billings in the first 6 months of the pandemic; compared with other family physicians, a higher portion were aged 75 years or older (13.0% vs 3.4%, P <0.001), had fee-for-service reimbursement (37.7% vs 24.9%, P <0.001), and had a panel size under 500 patients (40.0% vs 25.8%, P <0.001). Second, a fitted regression line found the absolute increase in the percentage of family physicians stopping work was 0.03% per year from 2010 to 2019 (P = 0.042) but 1.2% between 2019 to 2020 (P <0.001). More research is needed to understand the impact of physicians stopping work on primary care attachment and access to care.