scholarly journals The impact of chronic disease management on primary care doctors in Switzerland: a qualitative study

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia Braillard ◽  
Anbreen Slama-Chaudhry ◽  
Catherine Joly ◽  
Nicolas Perone ◽  
David Beran
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuan De Foo ◽  
Shilpa Surendran ◽  
Chen Hee Tam ◽  
Elaine Qiao Ying Ho ◽  
David Bruce Matchar ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The increasing chronic disease burden in developed countries has placed tremendous strain on tertiary healthcare infrastructure and resources. Therefore, there is an urgent need to shift chronic disease management from tertiary to primary care providers to mitigate the increase in demand for chronic care at hospitals. The organization of private general practitioners (GPs) into Primary Care Networks (PCNs) is a pragmatic move by Singapore, a developed and multi-ethnic urban city, to provide private GPs with team-based care capabilities and a platform to track care indicators for better management of chronic patients. As the PCN initiative is still in its embryonic stages, there is a void in research regarding its ability to empower private GPs to manage chronic patients effectively. This qualitative study aims to explore the facilitators and barriers for the management of chronic patients by private GPs in the PCN. Method: We conducted 30 semi-structured in-depth interviews with GPs enrolled in a PCN. Qualitative analysis of audio transcripts was performed to extract themes which highlighted the facilitators and barriers faced by PCN in the early stages of its development. Results Our results suggest that PCNs facilitated private GPs to more effectively manage chronic patients through 1) provision of ancillary services such as diabetic foot screening, diabetic retinal photography and nurse counselling to permit a “one-stop-shop”, 2) systematic monitoring of process and clinical outcome indicators through a chronic disease registry (CDR) to promote accountability for patients’ health outcomes and 3) funding streams for PCNs to hire additional manpower to oversee operations and to reimburse GPs for extended consultations. Barriers include high administrative load in maintaining the CDR due to the lack of a smart electronic clinic management system and financial gradient faced by patients seeking services from private GPs which incur higher out-of-pocket expenses than public primary healthcare institutions. Conclusion PCNs demonstrate great promise in empowering and motivating private GPs to manage chronic patients. However, barriers will need to be addressed to ensure the quality and comprehensiveness of PCNs in managing more chronic patients in the face of an ageing population.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuan De Foo ◽  
Shilpa Surendran ◽  
Chen Hee Tam ◽  
Elaine Qiao Ying Ho ◽  
David Bruce Matchar ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: The increasing chronic disease burden in developed countries has placed tremendous strain on tertiary healthcare infrastructure and resources. Therefore, there is an urgent need to shift chronic disease management from tertiary to primary care providers to mitigate the increase in demand for chronic care at hospitals. The organization of private general practitioners (GPs) into Primary Care Networks (PCNs) is a pragmatic move by Singapore, a developed and multi-ethnic urban city, to provide private GPs with team-based care capabilities and a platform to track care indicators for better management of chronic patients. As the PCN initiative is still in its embryonic stages, there is a void in research regarding its ability to empower private GPs to manage chronic patients effectively. This qualitative study aims to explore the facilitators and barriers for the management of chronic patients by private GPs in the PCN. Method: We conducted 30 semi-structured in-depth interviews with GPs enrolled in a PCN. Qualitative analysis of audio transcripts was performed to generate themes which highlighted the facilitators and barriers faced by PCN in the early stages of its development. Results: Our results suggest that PCNs facilitated private GPs to more effectively manage chronic patients through 1) provision of ancillary services such as diabetic foot screening, diabetic retinal photography and nurse counselling to permit a “one-stop-shop”, 2) systematic monitoring of process and clinical outcome indicators through a chronic disease registry (CDR) to promote accountability for patients’ health outcomes and 3) funding streams for PCNs to hire additional manpower to oversee operations and to reimburse GPs for extended consultations. Barriers include high administrative load in maintaining the CDR due to the lack of a smart electronic clinic management system and financial gradient faced by patients seeking services from private GPs which incur higher out-of-pocket expenses than public primary healthcare institutions.Conclusion: PCNs demonstrate great promise in empowering and motivating private GPs to manage chronic patients. However, barriers will need to be addressed to ensure the quality and comprehensiveness of PCNs in managing more chronic patients in the face of an ageing population.


2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saloshni Naidoo ◽  
Ozayr H. Mahomed ◽  
Shaidah Asmall ◽  
Myra Taylor

Background: Chronic diseases of lifestyle are detrimentally affecting South Africans. National Health Insurance, which is intended to improve care, requires capacity building for nurses at primary care clinics to ensure appropriate service provision.Objective: This study’s objective was to evaluate the impact of the ‘Primary Care 101’ chronic disease management guideline and training on nurses’ knowledge of chronic diseases management.Method: A population-based, unblinded, stratifid cluster randomised controlled trialwith intervention (n = 20) and control clinics (n = 10) in three South African districts was conducted over six months in 2012. Nurses in the clinics participated in surveying knowledge on management of tuberculosis, human immunodefiiency virus infection, mental health, epilepsy, diabetes, hypertension and asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). All nurses were surveyed at baseline and six months later. Intervention clinic nurses were also surveyed immediately after training and three months post-training. Data were analysed using SPSS version 19 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL).Total mean knowledge percentage scores were calculated for each chronic disease. Mean knowledge percentage score changes between baseline and six months amongst all nurses and between intervention and control clinic nurses were compared using the paired samples t-test and independent samples t-test respectively.Results: There were signifiant improvements in nurses’ knowledge of hypertension and diabetes management over six months. Knowledge about asthma and COPD management decreased in all districts and nurse categories.Conclusion: The improvements in nurses’ knowledge can ensure improved patientmanagement, but attention to asthma and COPD management is required.Agtergrond: Chroniese lewenstylsiektes beïnvloed Suid-Afrikaners nadelig. Die nasionale gesondheidsversekering, wat ten doel het om sorg te verbeter, vereis kapasiteitsbou vir verpleegsters by primêre-sorg-klinieke om sodoende toepaslike dienslewering te verseker.Doelwitte: Hierdie studie se doel was te evalueer wat die impak van die ‘Primary Care 101’ chroniese siekte bestuursriglyn, asook opleiding is op verpleegsters se kennis van hoe om chroniese siektes te bestuur.Metode: ’n Bevolkingsgebaseerde, onverblinde, ewekansige gekontroleerde trossteekproef met ingrypings- (n = 20) en kontrole-klinieke (n = 10) is oor ’n tydperk van ses maande in 2012 in drie Suid-Afrikaanse distrikte uitgevoer. Verpleegsters in hierdie klinieke het deelgeneem aan ’n opname oor hul kennis oor die bestuur van tuberkulose, menslike immuniteitsgebreksvirus-infeksie, geestesgesondheid, epilepsie, diabetes, hoë bloeddruk, asook asma en chroniese obstruktiewe longsiekte (COPD). Alle verpleegsters is by die basislyn ondervra en ses maande later. Intervensie kliniekverpleegsters is ook ondervra onmiddellik na die opleiding en drie maande post-opleiding. Data is ontleed met behulp van SPSS, weergawe 19 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL). Totale gemiddelde kennis persentasietellings isvir elke chroniese siekte bereken. Veranderinge in die gemiddelde kennis persentasietellings tussen die basislyn en ses maande later is onder alle verpleegsters, asook tussen ingrypingsen kontrole-kliniekverpleegsters vergelyk met behulp van die gepaarde steekproef t-toets en die onafhanklike steekproef t-toets onderskeidelik.Resultate: Daar was ’n aansienlike verbetering in verpleegsters se kennis oor die bestuur van hoë bloeddruk en diabetes na ses maande. Kennis oor die bestuur van asma en COPD het in alle distrikte en verpleegster-kategorieë afgeneem.Gevoltrekking: Die verbetering in die verpleegsters se kennis kan verbeterde pasiëntbestuur verseker, maar die bestuur van asma en COPD vereis verdere aandag.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. e046010
Author(s):  
Chuan De Foo ◽  
Shilpa Surendran ◽  
Chen Hee Tam ◽  
Elaine Ho ◽  
David Bruce Matchar ◽  
...  

ObjectiveThe increasing chronic disease burden has placed tremendous strain on tertiary healthcare resources in most countries, necessitating a shift in chronic disease management from tertiary to primary care providers. The Primary Care Network (PCN) policy was promulgated as a model of care to organise private general practitioners (GPs) into groups to provide GPs with resources to anchor patients with chronic conditions with them in the community. As PCN is still in its embryonic stages, there is a void in research regarding its ability to empower GPs to manage patients with chronic conditions effectively. This qualitative study aims to explore the facilitators and barriers for the management of patients with chronic conditions by GPs enrolled in PCN.DesignWe conducted 30 semistructured interviews with GPs enrolled in a PCN followed by a thematic analysis of audio transcripts until data saturation was achieved.SettingSingapore.ResultsOur results suggest that PCNs facilitated GPs to more effectively manage patients through (1) provision of ancillary services such as diabetic foot screening, diabetic retinal photography and nurse counselling to permit a ‘one-stop-shop’, (2) systematic monitoring of process and clinical outcome indicators through a chronic disease registry (CDR) to promote accountability for patients’ health outcomes and (3) funding streams for PCNs to hire additional manpower to oversee operations and to reimburse GPs for extended consultations. Barriers include high administrative load in maintaining the CDR due to the lack of a smart electronic clinic management system and financial gradient faced by patients seeking services from private GPs which incur higher out-of-pocket expenses than public primary healthcare institutions.ConclusionPCNs demonstrate great promise in empowering enrolled GPs to manage patients with chronic conditions. However, barriers will need to be addressed to ensure the viability of PCNs in managing more patients in the face of an ageing population.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuan De Foo ◽  
Shilpa Surendran ◽  
Chen Hee Tam ◽  
Elaine Qiao Ying Ho ◽  
David Bruce Matchar ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective: The increasing chronic disease burden has placed tremendous strain on tertiary healthcare resources in most countries, necessitating a shift in chronic disease management from tertiary to primary care providers. Therefore, the Primary Care Network (PCN) policy was promulgated as a model of care to organise private general practitioners (GPs) into groups to provide GPs with resources to anchor patients with chronic conditions with them in the community. As the PCN is still in its embryonic stages, there is a void in research regarding its ability to empower GPs to manage chronic patients effectively. This qualitative study aims to explore the facilitators and barriers for the management of chronic patients by GPs enrolled in the PCN. Design: We conducted 30 semi-structured interviews with GPs enrolled in a PCN followed by a thematic analysis of audio transcripts until data saturation was achieved. Setting: Singapore Results: Our results suggest that PCNs facilitated GPs to more effectively manage chronic patients through 1) provision of ancillary services such as diabetic foot screening, diabetic retinal photography and nurse counselling to permit a “one-stop-shop”, 2) systematic monitoring of process and clinical outcome indicators through a chronic disease registry (CDR) to promote accountability for patients’ health outcomes and 3) funding streams for PCNs to hire additional manpower to oversee operations and to reimburse GPs for extended consultations. Barriers include high administrative load in maintaining the CDR due to the lack of a smart electronic clinic management system and financial gradient faced by patients seeking services from private GPs which incur higher out-of-pocket expenses than public primary healthcare institutions.Conclusion: PCNs demonstrate great promise in empowering enrolled GPs to manage chronic patients. However, barriers will need to be addressed to ensure the viability of PCNs in managing more chronic patients in the face of an ageing population.


Author(s):  
Chuan De Foo ◽  
Shilpa Surendran ◽  
Geronimo Jimenez ◽  
John Pastor Ansah ◽  
David Bruce Matchar ◽  
...  

The primary care network (PCN) was implemented as a healthcare delivery model which organises private general practitioners (GPs) into groups and furnished with a certain level of resources for chronic disease management. A secondary qualitative analysis was conducted with data from an earlier study exploring facilitators and barriers GPs enrolled in PCN’s face in chronic disease management. The objective of this study is to map features of PCN to Starfield’s “4Cs” framework. The “4Cs” of primary care—comprehensiveness, first contact access, coordination and continuity—offer high-quality design options for chronic disease management. Interview transcripts of GPs (n = 30) from the original study were purposefully selected. Provision of ancillary services, manpower, a chronic disease registry and extended operating hours of GP practices demonstrated PCN’s empowering features that fulfil the “4Cs”. On the contrary, operational challenges such as the lack of an integrated electronic medical record and disproportionate GP payment structures limit PCNs from maximising the “4Cs”. However, the enabling features mentioned above outweighs the shortfalls in all important aspects of delivering optimal chronic disease care. Therefore, even though PCN is in its early stage of development, it has shown to be well poised to steer GPs towards enhanced chronic disease management.


10.2196/15927 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. e15927
Author(s):  
Scott Sittig ◽  
Jing Wang ◽  
Sriram Iyengar ◽  
Sahiti Myneni ◽  
Amy Franklin

Background Although there is a rise in the use of mobile health (mHealth) tools to support chronic disease management, evidence derived from theory-driven design is lacking. Objective The objective of this study was to determine the impact of an mHealth app that incorporated theory-driven trigger messages. These messages took different forms following the Fogg behavior model (FBM) and targeted self-efficacy, knowledge, and self-care. We assess the feasibility of our app in modifying these behaviors in a pilot study involving individuals with diabetes. Methods The pilot randomized unblinded study comprised two cohorts recruited as employees from within a health care system. In total, 20 patients with type 2 diabetes were recruited for the study and a within-subjects design was utilized. Each participant interacted with an app called capABILITY. capABILITY and its affiliated trigger (text) messages integrate components from social cognitive theory (SCT), FBM, and persuasive technology into the interactive health communications framework. In this within-subjects design, participants interacted with the capABILITY app and received (or did not receive) text messages in alternative blocks. The capABILITY app alone was the control condition along with trigger messages including spark and facilitator messages. A repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare adherence with behavioral measures and engagement with the mobile app across conditions. A paired sample t test was utilized on each health outcome to determine changes related to capABILITY intervention, as well as participants’ classified usage of capABILITY. Results Pre- and postintervention results indicated statistical significance on 3 of the 7 health survey measures (general diet: P=.03; exercise: P=.005; and blood glucose: P=.02). When only analyzing the high and midusers (n=14) of capABILITY, we found a statistically significant difference in both self-efficacy (P=.008) and exercise (P=.01). Although the ANOVA did not reveal any statistically significant differences across groups, there is a trend among spark conditions to respond more quickly (ie, shorter log-in lag) following the receipt of the message. Conclusions Our theory-driven mHealth app appears to be a feasible means of improving self-efficacy and health-related behaviors. Although our sample size is too small to draw conclusions about the differential impact of specific forms of trigger messages, our findings suggest that spark triggers may have the ability to cue engagement in mobile tools. This was demonstrated with the increased use of capABILITY at the beginning and conclusion of the study depending on spark timing. Our results suggest that theory-driven personalization of mobile tools is a viable form of intervention. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04132089; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT004122089


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie L. Albert ◽  
Margaret M. Paul ◽  
Ann M. Nguyen ◽  
Donna R. Shelley ◽  
Carolyn A. Berry

Abstract Background Primary care practices have remained on the frontline of health care service delivery throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of our study was to understand the early pandemic experience of primary care practices, how they adapted care processes for chronic disease management and preventive care, and the future potential of these practices’ service delivery adaptations. Methods We interviewed 44 providers and staff at 22 high-performing primary care practices located throughout the United States between March and May 2020. Interviews were transcribed and coded using a modified rapid assessment process due to the time-sensitive nature of the study. Results Practices reported employing a variety of adaptations to care during the COVID-19 pandemic including maintaining safe and socially distanced access through increased use of telehealth visits, using disease registries to identify and proactively outreach to patients, providing remote patient education, and incorporating more home-based monitoring into care. Routine screening and testing slowed considerably, resulting in concerns about delayed detection. Patients with fewer resources, lower health literacy, and older adults were the most difficult to reach and manage during this time. Conclusion Our findings indicate that primary care structures and processes developed for remote chronic disease management and preventive care are evolving rapidly. Emerging adapted care processes, most notably remote provision of care, are promising and may endure beyond the pandemic, but issues of equity must be addressed (e.g., through payment reform) to ensure vulnerable populations receive the same benefit.


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