Effect of Age, Practice Location and Covid-19 on the Use of POCT Methods by General Practitioners in Czechia in...

Point-of-care testing (POCT) helps accelerate and streamline many processes in primary care. However, there is little information on the characteristics of their users.

Data were provided by the largest Czech health insurance company, covering 60% of the population. A proprietary spatial categorization model based on OECD typology, adapted to Czech primary care conditions, was used for localization.

In all monitored groups, we observed continuous growth in the number of general practices using POCT methods, unaffected by Covid-19. Absolute numbers of POCT-INR and POCT-CRP examinations decreased during the pandemic years. The number of POCT-INR tests is more affected by practice location, while the number of POCT-CRP tests is influenced by the age of GPs.

Although POCT methods are a voluntary part of general practitioners' office equipment in Czechia, their more frequent use indicates that system-level conditions are appropriately set. The interest of GPs aged 60+ is surprising. Despite using POCT examinations the least, they show similar growth to other groups.