Comparing the implementation of advanced access strategies among primary health care providers

Reflective Tool on Advanced Access to Support Primary Healthcare Teams: Development and Validation of an Online Questionnaire

RATIONALE

Awareness of their standing relative to best practices motivates primary healthcare (PHC) teams to improve their practices. However, gathering the data necessary to create such a portrait is a challenge. An effective way to support the improvement of the practices of PHC teams is to simplify the availability of data portraying aspects of their practices that might need improvement. Timely access is one of the foremost challenges of PHC. Yet, very few tools supporting reflections on the implementation of best practices to improve access are available to PHC teams.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

To develop an online reflective tool that evaluates the state of a PHC team member's advanced access practice and formulates customized recommendations for improvement.

METHODS

This sequential multimethod study was informed by a literature review and an expert panel composed of researchers, patients, provincial and local decision-makers, and PHC clinical and administrative staff in the province of Quebec, Canada. Consensus was reached on the content of the questionnaire and the prioritization of the recommendations.

RESULTS

No reflective tool on advanced access practices was found in the literature review. Grey literature was used to create an initial version of the questionnaire. This version was revised and enriched through consultation phases with the expert panel. Then, five iterations of the tool were tested with 169 PHC team members, which led to the conception of two distinct versions: one for clinical staff and one for administrative agents responsible for appointment booking. The final versions of the reflective tool are available online in both English and French.

CONCLUSION

This reflective tool provides a portrait of PHC team members' advanced access practices as well as an automated report that contains personalized and prioritized recommendations for improvement. Further developments are necessary for its optimal use among PHC professionals other than physicians and nurse practitioners.

Taxonomy of advanced access practice profiles among family physicians, nurse practitioners and nurses in university-affiliated team-based primary healthcare clinics in Quebec

OBJECTIVES

The advanced access model is highly recommended to improve timely access to primary healthcare (PHC). However, its adoption varies among PHC providers. We aim to identify the advanced access profiles of PHC providers.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional study was conducted between October 2019 and March 2020. Latent class analysis (LCA) measures were used to identify PHC provider profiles based on 14 variables, 2 organisational context characteristics (clinical size and geographical area) and 12 advanced access strategies.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS

All family physicians, nurse practitioners and nurses working in the 49 university-affiliated team-based PHC clinics in Quebec, Canada, were invited, of which 35 participated.

PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURE

The LCA was based on 335 respondents. We determined the optimal number of profiles using statistical criteria (Akaike information criterion, Bayesian information criterion) and qualitatively named each of the six advanced access profiles.

RESULTS

(1) Low supply and demand planification (25%) was characterised by the smallest proportion of strategies used to balance supply and demand. (2) Reactive interprofessional collaboration (25%) was characterised by high collaboration and long opening periods for appointment scheduling. (3) Structured interprofessional collaboration (19%) was characterised by high use of interprofessional team meetings. (4) Small urban delegating practices (13%) was exclusively composed of family physicians and characterised by task delegation to other PHC providers on the team. (5) Comprehensive practices in urban settings (13%) was characterised by including as many services as possible on each visit. (6) Rural agility (4%) was characterised by the highest uptake of advanced access strategies based on flexibility, including adjusting the schedule to demand and having a large number of open-slot appointments available in the next 48 hours.

CONCLUSION

The different patterns of advanced access strategy adoption confirm the need for training to be tailored to individuals, categories of PHC providers and contexts.

Clinical and Organizational Nursing Innovations in Primary Care: Findings From a Stakeholders' Symposium

Nursing innovations in primary care, based on interprofessional care models, could be better identified, recognized, and deployed. This article presents the results of a symposium discussing the implementation of nursing innovations in primary care in Quebec, Canada, in partnership with researchers and stakeholders. Built on the appreciative inquiry approach, 9 nursing innovations were described. To support the implementation of such nursing innovations responding to current primary care issues and population needs, 4 recommendations emerged: the need to implement strategies to achieve optimal scope of practice for primary care nurses; the importance to develop funding and organizational models that support primary care nursing innovation; the need to enhance a collaborative and democratic governance open to innovation; and the opportunity to create partnerships with the research community and teaching institutions.

Ten years later: A portrait of the implementation of the advanced access model in Quebec

Since 2012, implementation of the advanced access model in primary care has been highly recommended across Canada to improve timely access. We present a portrait of the implementation of the advanced access model 10 years after its large-scale implementation across the province of Quebec. In total, 127 clinics participated in the study, with 999 family physicians and 107 nurse practitioners responding to the survey. Results show that opening schedules for appointments over a period of 2 to 4 weeks has largely been implemented. However, reserving consultation time for urgent or semi-urgent conditions was implemented by less than half and planning supply and demand for 20% or more of the upcoming year by fewer than one fifth of respondents. More strategies need to be put in place to react to imbalances when they occur. We demonstrate that strategies based on individual practice change are more often implemented than those requiring changes at the clinic.