The Organization of Outreach Work for Vulnerable Patients in General Practice during COVID-19: Results from the Cross-Sectional PRICOV-19 Study in 38 Countries

Esther Van Poel (), Claire Collins, Peter Groenewegen, Peter Spreeuwenberg, Gazmend Bojaj, Jonila Gabrani, Christian Mallen, Liubove Murauskiene, Milena Šantrić Milićević, Emmily Schaubroeck, Stefanie Stark and Sara Willems
Additional contact information
Esther Van Poel: Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Claire Collins: Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Peter Groenewegen: Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, 3500 BN Utrecht, The Netherlands
Peter Spreeuwenberg: Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, 3500 BN Utrecht, The Netherlands
Gazmend Bojaj: Management of Health Institutions and Services, Heimerer College, 10000 Prishtina, Kosovo
Jonila Gabrani: Faculty of Medicine, University of Basel, 4001 Basel, Switzerland
Christian Mallen: School of Medicine, Keele University, Keele ST5 5BG, UK
Liubove Murauskiene: Public Health Department, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, LT-03101 Vilnius, Lithuania
Milena Šantrić Milićević: Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
Emmily Schaubroeck: Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Stefanie Stark: Institute of General Practice, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), 91054 Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
Sara Willems: Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 4, 1-16

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected vulnerable populations’ access to health care. By proactively reaching out to them, general practices attempted to prevent the underutilization of their services. This paper examined the association between practice and country characteristics and the organization of outreach work in general practices during COVID-19. Linear mixed model analyses with practices nested in countries were performed on the data of 4982 practices from 38 countries. A 4-item scale on outreach work was constructed as the outcome variable with a reliability of 0.77 and 0.97 at the practice and country level. The results showed that many practices set up outreach work, including extracting at least one list of patients with chronic conditions from their electronic medical record (30.1%); and performing telephone outreach to patients with chronic conditions (62.8%), a psychological vulnerability (35.6%), or possible situation of domestic violence or a child-rearing situation (17.2%). Outreach work was positively related to the availability of an administrative assistant or practice manager ( p < 0.05) or paramedical support staff ( p < 0.01). Other practice and country characteristics were not significantly associated with undertaking outreach work. Policy and financial interventions supporting general practices to organize outreach work should focus on the range of personnel available to support such practice activities.

Keywords: primary health care; general practice; outreach work; equity; vulnerable populations; community-oriented primary care; quality of care; PRICOV-19; COVID-19; international comparison (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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