Addressing family physicians’ administrative burden: Using patient-reported data to improve efficiencies to primary care processes and practices
Principal investigator
Marie-Eve Poitras
Funding
$920,298 over 2 years
The Canadian Medical Association (CMA), MD Financial Management Inc. (MD) and Scotiabank
Study setting
Quebec, plus dissemination in all Canadian provinces
Themes
Training, primary care, front line, administrative burden, family physicians, health and care experience as perceived by patients.
Why?
The relevance of patient-reported data regarding their health outcomes (PROMs) and care experience (PREMs) is known to help improve health care processes and practices. The expertise of people who live with illness and use the health care system is currently underutilized. Not only would it help physicians provide care that is better suited to the patient perspective, but it would also aid in making processes more effective. Ultimately, using this data will reduce the administrative burden on family physicians who do work to organize their clinics’ services. Therefore, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA),together with MD Financial Management Inc. (MD) and Scotiabank, are committed to driving change by providing our team with $920,298 in funding over two years to develop a digital learning environment (DLE) to support the collection, analysis and use of this data in primary care clinics.
Check out our interviews with Pre Marie-Eve Poitras, who explains the rationale and objectives of the initiative, as well as the means that will be used to make it a reality! (French only)
Photo : Pre Marie-Eve Poitras (left) and Marie-Dominique Poirier, patient partner and collaborator of the initiative.
Credit : Amélie Fournier
Objective
This initiative will train Canadian front-line teams to collect, analyze and use PROMs and PREMs to implement a care and service offering that is better suited to and focuses on actual patient needs and expectations. The aim of this initiative is to optimize primary care and improve professional practices and patient engagement, with the ultimate goal of improving efficiencies in processes and operational decision making to reduce the administrative burden on family physicians.
How?
Our team will provide Canadian clinics with the tools they need to use patient-reported data: a digital learning environment (DLE) that will teach them how to use the data to improve the efficiency of health care processes and practices, and a digital platform for collecting, analyzing and visualizing the data. We will also support clinics as they begin to regularly collect and use patient-reported data to improve efficiencies in their processes and professional practices.
What results do we aim for?
Physicians and professional teams: The PROM and PREM data will help us gain a better understanding of patients’ true needs and expectations and will aid in decision making, prioritizing and identifying health care goals, wellness, communication and treatment response tracking. Clinical teams will receive direct feedback from patients about their care experience, which will help improve the clinic’s care and services. Ultimately, using this data will reduce the administrative burden by improving organizational efficiency and team well-being.
Patients: Patients will profit from a service offering and overall health care approach that is better suited to and focused on their needs. Improvements to processes will bolster communication and coordination within the clinic, while the health care team’s improved professional practices will increase patient satisfaction and experience, with a potential positive impact on their overall health.
Key partners
The project will be led by Professor Marie-Eve Poitras of the Université de Sherbrooke and her team in the CRMUS Research Chair in Optimal Professional Practices in Primary Care.
Collaborators include:
Marie-Dominique Poirier (patient partner), Prof. Annie Leblanc (Université Laval, researcher at the VITAM research centre), Prof. Géraldine Layani (Université de Montréal, researcher at the CHUM Research Centre), Prof. Sabrina Wong (University of British Colombia, researcher at the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research) and Dr. Antoine Groulx (professor at Université Laval, Scientific Comanager of the LHS Support Unit).
