Team-Based Primary Care Practice Transformation Initiative and Changes in Patient Experience and Recommended Cancer Screening Rates
Adoption of team-based approaches to delivering primary care has emerged as a promising strategy to improve clinical quality and patient experience of care. In team-based primary care models, individuals from different disciplines collaboratively manage the care for a panel of patients. This study examined the changes in patient experience of care and recommended cancer screening rates associated in practices utilising team-based care. In comparison to control practices, team-based care practices had significant improvements in their communication with patients. However, there were no immediate improvements observed in other measures of patient experience of care, such as knowledge of patients, and access to healthcare. Neither were there improvements detected in cancer screening rates. These findings suggest communication may be the first dimension of patient experience that improves following establishment of team-based primary care. Furthermore, these results indicate a need to better understand the variation in implementation factors that facilitate some practices’ successful transitions to team-based care, and to use teams effectively to improve cancer screening processes.