RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Increasing primary care capacity by adding team members
JF The Annals of Family Medicine
JO Ann Fam Med
FD American Academy of Family Physicians
SP 7038
DO 10.1370/afm.22.s1.7038
VO 22
IS Supplement 1
A1 Ansari, Hina
A1 Neupane, Dipika
A1 Ivers, Noah
A1 Kiran, Tara
A1 Thirugnanasampanthar, Sai Surabi
A1 Sibley, Lyn
A1 Khan, Paul A.
A1 Nincic, Vera
A1 Thelen, Rachel
A1 Pearce, Sydney
A1 Rajendra, Kanya
A1 Carter, Cris
A1 Martin, Danielle
A1 Zhao, Jane
A1 Tricco, Andrea
YR 2024
UL http://www.annfammed.org/content/22/Supplement_1/7038.abstract
AB Context Over 6.5 million adults in Canada do not have a family doctor or nurse practitioner. Interprofessional team-based care can expand access to primary care, however, the relationship between interprofessional teams and their impact on primary care capacity is not well-understood.Objective To discover what is known in the literature about whether and how interprofessional primary care teams can impact the “capacity” (ability of the most-responsible clinician to serve more patients).Study Design Rapid scoping review. Teams were defined as at least one most-responsible clinician and one regulated health professional working together on an ongoing basis with shared patients.Setting Primary care teams in high income countriesPopulation Studied Study selection was limited to the peer-reviewed literature examining the impact of interprofessional primary care teams on the most-responsible clinician’s capacity. Studies that were qualitative, published before 2000, or non-English were excluded.Intervention (if appropriate): N/AOutcome Measures The main outcome of interest was a quantitative assessment of the capacity of the most responsible clinician(s) on the team. Secondary outcomes of interest were provider experience, health outcomes and cost of care, which were extracted only from studies that reported the primary outcome.Results The search strategy resulted in 35 relevant studies. Results demonstrated substantial heterogeneity in measuring capacity of the most-responsible clinician. There was substantial variation in: patient populations served; the team size and composition; comparator groups; physician payment models; team governance and culture of teamwork; types of health professionals and their roles and ratios; and the total basket of services provided.Conclusion Our study highlights the need for extensive further research in order to elucidate the mechanisms through which interprofessional teams facilitate or optimize primary care capacity, and the patient populations who may be best served by the different team configurations.