The Impact of COVID-19 on Primary Care Teamwork : a Qualitative Study in Two States

© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Society of General Internal Medicine..

BACKGROUND: The emergence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disrupted how primary care physicians (PCPs) and their staff delivered team-based care.

OBJECTIVE: To explore PCPs' perspectives about the impact of stay-at-home orders and the increased use of telemedicine on interactions and working relationships with their practice staff during the first 9 months of the pandemic.

DESIGN: Qualitative research.

PARTICIPANTS: Participants included PCPs from family and community medicine, general internal medicine, and pediatrics.

APPROACH: One-on-one, semi-structured video interviews with 42 PCPs were conducted between July and December 2020. Physicians were recruited from 30 primary care practices in Massachusetts and Ohio using a combination of purposeful, convenience, and snowball sampling. Interview questions focused on work changes and work relationships with other staff members during the pandemic as well as their experiences delivering telemedicine. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and coded using deductive and inductive approaches.

KEY RESULTS: Across respondents and states, the context of the pandemic was reported to have four major impacts on primary care teamwork: (1) staff members' roles were repurposed to support telemedicine; (2) PCPs felt disconnected from staff; (3) PCPs had difficulty communicating with staff; and (4) many PCPs were demoralized during the pandemic.

CONCLUSIONS: The lack of in-person contact, and less synchronous communication, negatively impacted PCP-staff teamwork and morale during the pandemic. These challenges further highlight the importance for practice leaders to recognize and attend to clinicians' relational and work-related needs as the pandemic continues.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2022

Erschienen:

2022

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:37

Enthalten in:

Journal of general internal medicine - 37(2022), 8 vom: 12. Juni, Seite 2003-2008

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

DePuccio, Matthew J [VerfasserIn]
Sullivan, Erin E [VerfasserIn]
Breton, Mylaine [VerfasserIn]
McKinstry, Danielle [VerfasserIn]
Gaughan, Alice A [VerfasserIn]
McAlearney, Ann Scheck [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

COVID-19
Healthcare workforce
Journal Article
Primary care
Qualitative research
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Teamwork

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 16.06.2022

Date Revised 08.08.2022

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1007/s11606-022-07559-5

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM339417609