COVID-19 Pandemic impacted the frequency of key primary care activities according to national study

Published today in BMJ Open, a new study led by researchers at the McMaster University department of family medicine sheds light on how the pandemic impacted access and comprehensiveness in primary care chronic disease management. 

Comparing deidentified electronic medical record (EMR) data of over 900,000 adults from before and during the pandemic, researchers found that fewer patients met with their family doctor during the first 21 months of the pandemic than during the 21 months before. For patients who did access primary care, the care they received from the practice generally remained unchanged, however there was a decrease in services that required interactions outside primary care, such as lab tests and referrals to specialists.  

“Considering the recent stresses across our health care system, these results show how outside pressures can shake up the essential functions of primary care,” says  Michelle Howard, one of the lead investigators of the study and an associate professor at the department of family medicine. “It’s important that we have good data on these core functions.” 

Blood pressure measurement was the study indicator with the largest reduction during the pandemic. 

“This isn’t surprising, given the transition towards virtual care that we saw during the pandemic,” Howard adds. “Further, that same transition to virtual care may have mitigated decreases in other aspects of care — maintaining access and the comprehensiveness of care provided.” 

Howard and her co-authors believe possible factors that contributed to these changes include government pandemic measures; limited access to primary care and related services; and patients choosing to defer services. 

The study, which used data from the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network (CPCSSN), also found that care provision patterns did not fully return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2021.  

“It is possible that there were shifts in care priorities that led to backlogs,” says Howard. “We hope that by analyzing the impact of the pandemic through large datasets, we can better prepare for future challenges and prioritize patient well-being in policy and clinical practice when those challenges arise.” 

Access the full article in BMJ Open