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Patient contacts in general practice before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic - a Danish cohort study
Jesper Bo Nielsen1, Helene Stoettrup Andersen2
1Research Unit of General Practice, Department of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark jbnielsen@health.sdu.dk.
Background:
The COVID-19 pandemic induced several significant changes within general practice related to visiting frequency, types of consultations, and clinical staff managing patient contacts. It is relevant to study if these changes related to patient consultations continue after COVID-19 restrictions have ended.
Aim:
To describe and discuss changes in the services offered by general practice to their patients during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design & Setting:
A cohort study including 19.906 patients from 7 Danish GP clinics followed for three full 12 months periods before (February 2019 - January 2020), during (April 2020 - March 2021), and after the COVID-19 pandemic (April 2022 - March 2023).
Method:
Visiting frequency, consultation type (face-to-face, email, phone), and contact persons (GP or their clinical staff, eg, nurses) were compared during the three observation years.
Results:
The number of annual clinical contacts per patient (6.5 contacts/year) as well as the fraction of consultations being on the phone (32.3%) are back to pre-COVID-19 levels, whereas the increased fraction of contacts by email (20.7%) and increased fraction of encounters managed by the non-GP clinical staff (79.3%) observed during the pandemic has remained also after the pandemic period.
Conclusion:
The general practice that patients meet today is different from before the COVID-19 pandemic. Face-to-face consultations are fewer, e-mail consultations have become more frequent, and a greater proportion of patient encounters are managed by non-GP clinical staff such as nurses. Studies on patient satisfaction related to these changes are needed.
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