The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on primary care physicians in Israel, with comparison to an international cohort: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background The COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on primary care and primary care physicians (PCPs) in Israel and around the world. There is paucity of information regarding treatment of patients with COVID-19 in the community, since most research was performed in hospitals. The aim of this study was to describe the Israeli PCPs’ experience. Methods This study is a part of an international cross-sectional study, the PRICOV-19. A translated version of the questionnaire was distributed among Israeli PCPs from December 2020 to July 2021. In this study, we describe the Israeli results and compare them to the international results. Results 5,961 respondents from 29 countries answered the questionnaire, 94 from Israel, with an Israeli response rate of 16%. Israeli PCPs reported an increase in use of telemedicine from 11 to 49% during the COVID epidemic. PCPs also reported a decline in their wellbeing; absence of secured time slots for keeping updated; perception that the Ministry of Health guidelines were a threat to the staff wellbeing and organization of practice and delays in the examination of non-COVID urgent cases. Conclusions The findings of this study raise concerns regarding the PCPs experience and may form the basis for an improved process of care. Guidelines for proper usage of telemedicine, substitutes for the physical examination and procedures for minimizing delayed patient examination for urgent conditions should be developed. Government directives and clinical guidelines should be communicated in a timely manner, with secured timeslots for physicians’ self-learning or updating. Ensuring physicians’ well-being in general should be an organization priority.

“Swamped with information”: a qualitative study of family physicians' experiences of managing and applying pandemic-related information

“…Some participants had opportunities to communicate directly with public health and system managers, which improved their personal experiences and instilled a sense that primary care providers were valued. Our findings are consistent with studies from other high-income countries that found that during the early stages of the pandemic, primary care providers had to manage rapidly evolving information and practice guidelines that focused on secondary settings (Gray and Sanders, 2020;Kurotschka et al, 2021;Smyrnakis et al, 2021;Sotomayor-Castillo et al, 2021;Adler et al, 2022;Mahlknecht et al, 2022;Van Poel et al, 2022;Makowski et al, 2023). We also identified attributes of information that FPs valued: credible, clear, consistent, collated, brief, actionable, bi-directional, and relevant to the primary care setting.…”

The role of primary care during the pandemic: shared experiences from providers in five European countries

“…Maintaining access and continuity is particularly challenging during health crises. Disruptions to regular service delivery in primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic have been widely discussed in the literature [ 76 – 78 ] and are especially relevant for vulnerable patient groups such as patients with chronic diseases [ 47 , 79 ] or elderly patients [ 36 , 37 ]. Such disruptions were also reported by the interviewees of all investigated countries.…”

Changes in work tasks and organization of general practice in Norway during the COVID-19 pandemic: results from a comparative international study

“…An increase in video consultations was also found in the international PRICOV-19 cohort, where the indicated daily use of video consultations increased from 1.3 to 10.5 % [ 10 ]. It is possible that Norwegian GP practices more easily than many other countries could launch such services, as all Norwegian GPs already used electronic patient record systems with a mandatory connection to a high-security digital platform.…”