Shifts In Patient And Physician Trends Shape Primary Care In Alberta

Background and goal: In this study, researchers examined changes complete clip successful characteristics of adults cared for by family physicians from 2004 to 2020 successful Alberta, Canada, on pinch trends successful family physicians and their believe patterns for adults complete 18 years old. 

Study approach: Using linked administrative wellness data, including expert billing claims and hospital/ambulatory data, nan researchers created annual, population-based snapshots from 2004 to 2020 of adults seeing family physicians providing broad care. They tracked diligent operation (age, number of chronic conditions, intelligence wellness and substance-use conditions) and expert workload (number of session days providing superior care, diligent contacts per session day, and unsocial big patients cared for per year).

Main results

• The number of female physicians accrued from 39% successful 2004 to 46.7% successful 2020, and graduates trained successful low- and middle-income countries roseate from 6.3% to 17.2%.

• The proportionality of individuals aged 61-80 grew from 16.1% to 22.1%, and those pinch much than 5 chronic conditions astir doubled.

• There were changes successful expert believe complete clip including decreases successful mean days worked each twelvemonth (167 successful 2004, 156 successful 2020), and nan mean number of big visits per session time fell from 23 to 20.

Why it matters: These strategy level shifts thief explicate entree pressures successful superior attraction and connection a clear awesome for wellness systems to usage successful workforce readying and assets allocation to meet rising diligent complexity.