Primary Care Team Funding, Compensation and Practice Models Across Canadian Jurisdictions: An Environmental Scan

Successive waves of primary care reforms have focused on expanding team-based care across Canada, frequently through the addition of registered nurses (RNs). Reforms have varied, however, in teams' funding, compensation and organization.

In this environmental scan, we sought to identify and describe existing primary care compensation and practice models across Canada.

Through structured and snowball searching, we identified and extracted data from 189 sources, yielding 44 compensation models and 55 practice models.

While information on RNs' compensation was lacking, physician remuneration and practice model descriptions indicate substantial variation in funding, compensation and practice models where integration of RNs is occurring. This reflects ongoing primary care reforms that build upon heterogenous plans and existing systems.

Amidst ongoing calls to expand team-based primary care, the lack of clarity around existing funding, compensation and practice models challenges our ability to evaluate the aspects of team-based care that contribute to their overall functioning and effectiveness.