Declining Comprehensiveness of Services Delivered by Canadian Family Physicians Is Not Driven by Early-Career Physicians.

We describe changes in the comprehensiveness of services delivered by family physicians in 4 Canadian provinces (British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia) during the periods 1999-2000 and 2017-2018 and explore if changes differ by years in practice. We measured comprehensiveness using province-wide billing data across 7 settings (home, long-term care, emergency department, hospital, obstetrics, surgical assistance, anesthesiology) and 7 service areas (pre/postnatal care, Papanicolaou [Pap] testing, mental health, substance use, cancer care, minor surgery, palliative home visits). Comprehensiveness declined in all provinces, with greater changes in number of service settings than service areas.

Changes over time in patient visits and continuity of care among graduating cohorts of family physicians in 4 Canadian provinces.

Background: Lack of patient access to family physicians in Canada is a concern. The role of recent physician graduates in this problem of supply of primary care services has not been established. We sought to establish whether career stage or graduation cohort were related to family physician practice volume and continuity of care over time.

Government policies targeting primary care physician practice from 1998-2018 in three Canadian provinces: A jurisdictional scan.

Primary care is the foundation of health care systems around the world. Physician autonomy means that governments rely on a limited selection of levers to implement reforms in primary care delivery, and these policies may impact the practice choices, intentions, and patterns of primary care physicians. Using a systematic search strategy to capture publicly available policy documents, we conducted a scan of such policies from 1998 to 2018 in three Canadian provinces: British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and Ontario.

Practice patterns among early-career primary care (ECPC) physicians and workforce planning implications: protocol for a mixed methods study.

Introduction: Canadians report persistent problems accessing primary care despite an increasing per-capita supply of primary care physicians (PCPs). There is speculation that PCPs, especially those early in their careers, may now be working less and/or choosing to practice in focused clinical areas rather than comprehensive family medicine, but little evidence to support or refute this. The goal of this study is to inform primary care planning by: (1) identifying values and preferences shaping the practice intentions and choices of family medicine residents and early career PCPs, (2) comparing practice patterns of early-career and established PCPs to determine if changes over time reflect cohort effects (attributes unique to the most recent cohort of PCPs) or period effects (changes over time across all PCPs) and (3) integrating findings to understand the dynamics among practice intentions, practice choices and practice patterns and to identify policy implications.

Regional differences in where and how family medicine residents intend to practise: a cross-sectional survey analysis.

Background: Family medicine residents choose among a range of practice options as they enter the physician workforce. We describe the demographic and personal characteristics of Canadian family medicine residents and examine differences in the intentions of residents from Ontario, Quebec, Western Canada and Atlantic Canada at the completion of their training, in terms of practice comprehensiveness, organizational model, clinical domains, practice settings and populations served.

Methods: We analyzed national survey data collected by the College of Family Physicians of Canada and 16 university-based family medicine residency programs.