Emergency and primary care collaboration during COVID-19 pandemic: A quick systematic review of reviews

Abstract

COVID-19 is one of the deadliest viral infections to have hit the planet. There is urgent need to bridge the gaps in handling this pandemic by methodically synthesising available literature through a unique holistic perspective. A systematic review of articles regarding emergency and primary care during COVID-19 pandemic was carried out. PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, Web of Science, and Google Scholar were screened for articles and qualitative data across various studies were coded and thematically analyzed. Narrative synthesis was achieved by themes identified from findings of studies. Out of n = 953 articles retrieved, we identified and critically appraised n = 7 articles of which n = 5 were narrative reviews, one was systematic review and one was scoping review from researchers across ten countries. Nine overlapping themes were identified under three broad domains – clinical understanding of the disease, social aspects of the disease, and its contextual implications during pandemic. This narrative synthesis draws up a holistic picture of recent reviews on clinical and social understanding of COVID-19 as a disease and as a pandemic. The overlap among nine themes identified in this review could mean that primary care-level screening, triaging, referral, and emergency care of COVID-19 patients in the backdrop of current clinical understanding of the pandemic are all intertwined. Coping with COVID-19 co-habitation and managing undifferentiated illnesses require a syndromic approach and deft handling at grass root levels. Inclusive health policy empowering inherent holistic specialties like family medicine and emergency medicine could be the prudent way forward during this pandemic.

How did general practices organize care during the COVID-19 pandemic: the protocol of the cross-sectional PRICOV-19 study in 38 countries

“…Nonetheless, they experience many challenges to fulfill this role. The PRICOV-19 study fills the gap in the current knowledge and meets the need for in-depth research on the organization of PHC during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 2 , 3 , 11 , 16 , 26 , 72 , 73 ]. The involvement of GPs in pandemic preparedness plans is widely recognized [ 74 ].…”

Initial experiences regarding COVID19 mortality in Punjab-A mixed method analysis

“…Timely diagnosis and treatment will further reduce hospitalization and mortality. [ 16 ] In current study 84.4% of subjects had no contact history with confirmed case and 91% of subjects had no travel history. Similarly, 84% deceased had no travel history or no known contact history as observed in a report.…”

“The measures taken by the government overburdened the daily practice” – insights of the PRICOV-19 study on German general practitioners in times of COVID-19

“…Furthermore, preventive care, e.g., vaccinations, was widely accomplished by General practitioners (GPs) in their practices [ 19 , 20 , 27 , 28 ]. In this pandemic, the primary care sector had to maintain basic health care structure, especially if other parts of the healthcare system were in danger of overloading [ 4 , 21 , 29 ]. Therefore, German GPs functioned as gatekeepers who provided authorisation for access to hospital care by mitigating the risk of overburdened clinics and delayed specialist care [ 13 , 30 , 31 ].…”