Evaluating access during change: A qualitative exploration of access impacts to Canadian primary care rehabilitation providers during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic required substantial changes in delivery of team-based primary care, impacting both how and which patients accessed the more comprehensive services teams provide. We sought to explore changes in access to primary care rehabilitation services during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic to identify potential new problems and improvements. In this longitudinal study, sixteen rehabilitation professionals working on primary care teams in Manitoba and Ontario recorded audio-diaries and later participated in interviews throughout the first year of the pandemic. Qualitative analysis included data immersion, coding to identify the practice changes and associated access impacts, then applying Levesque and colleagues’ Patient-Centred Access to Healthcare framework to interpret findings. Participants described service changes that both enhanced and reduced access, including redeployment, outreach, virtual care, discontinuation of some services and start of new ones, and new risk management strategies. Some implied equity-specific impacts. Virtual care and outreach activities created access for patient populations who previously may have been underserved, while virtual care, redeployment, and new risk management activities created new access barriers and inequities, leaving some patients completely unable to reach care. Changes to team collaboration activities could help or hinder access. Continuing outreach activities, strengthening team collaboration, and thoughtfully integrating virtual care can improve access to comprehensive primary care. As the primary care sector works to recover from pandemic impacts and address population health needs, applying a patient-centred access framework during practice redesign offers a meaningful way to strengthen services.