Publications by authors named "Sara Ares Blanco"

Background: This article aims to examine patient safety in general practice during COVID-19.

Methods: In total, 5489 GP practices from 37 European countries and Israel filled in the online self-reported PRICOV-19 survey between November 2020 and December 2021. The outcome measures include 30 patient safety indicators on structure, process, and outcome.

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Background: The COVID-19 vaccination campaign in several European countries involved collaboration between public health and Primary Health Care (PHC).

Objective: To highlight the role of PHC professionals in the COVID-19 vaccination rollout, specifically in terms of vaccine administration, communication and contributing to vaccination population coverage.

Methods: A descriptive retrospective study of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign across 28 European countries was conducted, covering data from December 2020 to November 2021.

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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated changes in European healthcare systems, with a significant proportion of COVID-19 cases being managed on an outpatient basis in primary healthcare (PHC). To alleviate the burden on healthcare facilities, many European countries developed contact-tracing apps and symptom checkers to identify potential cases. As the pandemic evolved, the European Union introduced the Digital COVID-19 Certificate for travel, which relies on vaccination, recent recovery, or negative test results.

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Background: Primary Health Care (PHC) plays a crucial role in managing the COVID-19 pandemic, with only 8% of cases requiring hospitalization. However, PHC COVID-19 data often goes unnoticed on European government dashboards and in media discussions. This project aims to examine official information on PHC patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, with specific objectives: (1) Describe PHC's clinical pathways for acute COVID-19 cases, including long-term care facilities, (2) Describe PHC COVID-19 pandemic indicators, (3) Develop COVID-19 PHC activity indicators, (4) Explain PHC's role in vaccination strategies, and (5) Create a PHC contingency plan for future pandemics.

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Background: Changes in demographics with an older population, the illness panorama with increasing prevalence of non-communicable diseases, and the shift from hospital care to home-based care place demand on primary health care, which requires multiprofessional collaboration and team-based organization of work. The COVID-19 pandemic affected health care in various ways, such as heightened infection control measures, changing work practices, and increased workload.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the association between primary care practices' organization, and quality and safety changes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Gender is an important determinant of health. Its relationship with inequality and violence allows us to consider being a woman as a risk factor for health. Girls and teenager girls are not exempt from this circumstance, which conditions their lives from before birth and can determine their health status throughout life.

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Background: Performing cardiovascular and cancer screenings in target populations can reduce mortality. Visiting a General Practitioner (GP) once a year is related to an increased likelihood of preventive care. The aim of this study was to analyse the influence of visiting a GP in the last year on the delivery of preventive services based on sex and household income.

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Article Synopsis
  • Primary Health Care (PHC) in Spain played a crucial role in managing COVID-19 by organizing practices that ensured quality and safety, with variations based on regional prevalence of the virus.
  • A study involving 266 Primary Care Providers (PCPs) highlighted that most were in high prevalence areas, primarily serving elderly and chronic patients, yet structural differences across regions were minimal.
  • The findings indicated greater use of remote services and administrative support in high prevalence regions, but most PCPs felt government support was insufficient, leading to delays in care for urgent conditions.
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Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of patients received ambulatory treatment, highlighting the importance of primary health care (PHC). However, there is limited knowledge regarding PHC workload in Europe during this period. The utilization of COVID-19 PHC indicators could facilitate the efficient monitoring and coordination of the pandemic response.

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Background And Aim: Primary health care (PHC) supported long-term care facilities (LTCFs) in attending COVID-19 patients. The aim of this study is to describe the role of PHC in LTCFs in Europe during the early phase of the pandemic.

Methods: Retrospective descriptive study from 30 European countries using data from September 2020 collected with an ad hoc semi-structured questionnaire.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated health inequities among vulnerable populations and examines the collaboration between public health (PH) and primary health care (PHC) to address these challenges across eight different countries.
  • - Findings reveal that all countries used outreach strategies for vulnerable groups, digital assessment tools in PHC, but faced issues with underrepresentation at decision-making levels and poor communication between PH and PHC.
  • - The research emphasizes the need for better coordination and integration of PH and PHC to effectively respond to health crises, suggesting that understanding social determinants of health is crucial for improving outcomes for at-risk populations.
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Background: The indicators of the pandemic have been based on the total number of diagnosed cases of COVID-19, the number of people hospitalized or in intensive care units, and deaths from the infection. The aim of this study is to describe the available data on diagnostic tests, health service used for the diagnosis of COVID-19, case detection and monitoring.

Method: Descriptive study with review of official data available on the websites of the Spanish health councils corresponding to 17 Autonomous Communities, 2 Autonomous cities and the Ministry of Health.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study aimed to analyze how primary health care (PHC) managed COVID-19 treatment across 30 European countries, highlighting both the commonalities and differences in patients' clinical pathways during the pandemic.
  • - Data was collected through questionnaires completed by general practitioners (GPs) regarding PHC workflows as of September 2020, revealing that case detection and testing occurred in 27 out of 30 countries, while specialized COVID-19 clinics were only present in 8.
  • - The findings showed varied practices in mandatory isolation, sick leave certification by GPs, and the availability of patient isolation resources, indicating that differences among countries should be addressed for better management in future health crises.
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Background: Cancer preventive services (gynaecological cancer screening, colon cancer screening) and cardiometabolic screening are recommended by guidelines to individuals. People with diabetes were less likely to receive them than those without diabetes in some studies.

Objectives: To analyse differences in the coverage of preventive services in people with diabetes compared to non-diabetic individuals and in people with diabetes according to sex and household income.

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Aim: This study aimed to analyze glycemic control and multifactorial cardiovascular control targets in people with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) in primary care according to sex and socioeconomic status (SES).

Materials And Methods: This is an observational, cross-sectional, and multicenter study. We analyzed all the patients with T2DMM aged between 40 and 75 years in Madrid city (113,265) through electronic health records from 01 August 2017 to 31 July 2018.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aims to analyze available data on COVID-19 diagnostics and health services in Spain, focusing on infection rates, hospitalization, and mortality statistics.
  • It involves a descriptive review of official data from health councils across 17 Autonomous Communities and 2 cities, collecting information on testing, contact tracing, and service utilization.
  • Findings reveal inconsistencies in data availability; while most regions report on diagnosed cases and mortality, information on health service use and specific diagnostic tests is often lacking, with some regions providing little to no data.
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Objective: Primary Care (PC) must attend and follow COVID-19 patients with mild and moderate symptoms, and identify severe cases. The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of patients attended in PC with suspicious COVID-19 and health care provision by PC.

Methods: Retrospective longitudinal observational study of electronic health records (EHR) and agendas.

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The 74th World Health Assembly adopted in May 2021 the "Global Patient Safety Action Plan: 2021-2030" to enhance patient safety as an essential component in the design, procedures and performance evaluation of health systems worldwide. It is a strategic plan that guides country governments, health sector entities, health organisations and the World Health Organisation secretariat on how to implement the assembly's patient safety resolution. Deployment of the plan will strengthen the quality and safety of health systems worldwide by spanning the entire continuum of people's health care from diagnosis to treatment and care, reducing the likelihood of harm in the course of care.

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Background: Patients with COVID-19 are follow-up in primary care and long COVID is scarcely defined. The study aim was to describe SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia and cut-offs for defining long COVID in primary care follow-up patients.

Methods: A retrospective observational study in primary care in Madrid, Spain, was conducted.

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Introduction: New tools are needed for early evaluation of patients who could be infected by COVID-19 during this pandemic. M-Health (apps) could be a solution in this setting to evaluate a COVID-19 diagnosis. The aim of this study was to describe which COVID-19s apps are available in Spain.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The article discusses how twelve European countries managed human resources and vaccination strategies in primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic, successfully increasing their workforce.
  • - Other healthcare professionals were added to assist family doctors with their duties, all under supervision and coordination to enhance care delivery.
  • - The European Commission played a key role in vaccine production, purchase, and distribution, while the involvement of primary care in vaccination varied by country, with public health departments handling most of the workload.
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We describe the role of primary care (PC) in 12 European countries in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. There is no official information at European level on the activity of PC. The findings were: All countries provided COVID-19 information through telephone lines and websites to their citizens.

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Background: Possible cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection were diagnosed in primary care in Madrid, some of these cases had pneumonia. Most of the SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia published data came from hospitalised patients. This study set out to describe clinical characteristics of patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia diagnosed in primary care across age groups and type of pneumonia.

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Introduction: New tools are needed for early evaluation of patients who could be infected by COVID-19 during this pandemic. M-Health (apps) could be a solution in this setting to evaluate a COVID-19 diagnosis. The aim of this study was to describe which COVID-19s apps are available in Spain.

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