Project ECHO^® in Primary Care: Informing Providers about COVID-19 and Its Impact on Health Care Delivery

BACKGROUND Rural, primary care providers face particular challenges with adapting the delivery of care in the setting of the Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Project ECHO® is a virtual, case-based platform centered on collective learning. As a regional Area Health Education Center (AHEC), we developed two Project ECHO® series aimed at disseminating best practices and creating a community of shared experiences for rural providers.METHODS On March 30, 2020, we launched two Project ECHO® series pertaining to COVID-19: the Primary Care COVID-19 Collaborative series and the Practice Support for COVID-19 Preparedness series. These series each occurred twice weekly, concluding in February 2021, and were free to attend. Topics include COVID-19-specific management as well as strategies for adapting the delivery of care during the pandemic. We assessed engagement per county as well as attendee evaluations.RESULTS In the first month, we hosted 19 sessions with 283 participants from 37 counties in North Carolina. Providers felt the most impactful aspects of the sessions were the changes to their practice and the lateral learning from peers in the region.LIMITATIONS In review of our survey responses, a small percentage of our participants do not appear to have direct patient care roles, so we believe this impacted our survey results particularly in regard to relevance to clinical practice and change to clinical practice.CONCLUSIONS Project ECHO® is an effective platform for quickly disseminating information and creating a sense of community in the midst of the social distancing required during the pandemic.