Interprofessional teams and capacity in collaborative primary care: a rapid scoping review

Interprofessional team-based primary care models are pursued often as a means to improve access to primary care services and increase capacity within the health system for more patients to be served. However, this relationship has not been previously synthesized in the available literature. Our objective was to investigate what is and is not known about the impact of interprofessional primary care teams on the most responsible clinician's capacity to serve more patients.

We conducted a rapid scoping review of literature published between 2000 and 2023 using MEDLINE. Eligibility criteria included studies of team-based care defined as at least one most-responsible clinician and one regulated health professional working together on an ongoing basis with shared patients. The primary outcome was a quantitative assessment of the capacity of the most responsible clinician(s) on the team.

After screening 14,639 citations and 853 full-text articles, 35 studies were included. There was substantial variation in: patient populations served; team size and composition; comparator groups; team governance and culture of teamwork; types of health professionals and their roles and ratios; and the basket of services provided.

Findings document a range of ways that capacity is pursued and achieved through interprofessional primary care teams. The heterogeneity in this review highlights the need to identify the mechanisms through which interprofessional teams facilitate or optimize primary care capacity, and the patient populations who may be best served by various team configurations. The gaps highlighted in this review and the paucity of studies warrant further in-depth evaluations of interprofessional team-based primary care.