ArticleBMC primary care2022
"What do you mean I can't have a doctor? this is Canada!" - a qualitative study of the myriad consequences for unattached patients awaiting primary care attachment.
Article in BMC primary care, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Access or continuity: a zero sum game? A systematic review of the literature examining the relationship between access and continuity in primary healthcare.BMC primary care · 2025Pooled it
- Article
- An ounce of "superscreener": A novel cancer screening program targeting unattached individuals.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2026Article
- Exploring user experiences in a novel primary care center: a qualitative grounded theory study.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Does mental illness history affect primary care chronic disease management in older adults? A population-based propensity score-matched study.Age and ageing · 2025Article
- Article
- Impact of changes in primary care attachment: a scoping review.Family medicine and community health · 2025Article
- The healthcare experiences of rural-living Canadians with and without a primary care provider: a qualitative analysis of open-ended cross-sectional survey responses.Primary health care research & development · 2025Article
- Generating user-driven patient personas to support preventive health care activities of rural-living unattached patients.PEC innovation · 2024Article
- Popularity of HIV self-tests may say more about the state of our primary care system than about the device itself.Canada communicable disease report = Releve des maladies transmissibles au Canada · 2024Article
- Exploration of primary care models and timely access to care in New Brunswick (Canada).BMC primary care · 2024Article
- Toward a universal definition of provider-patient attachment in primary care.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2024Review
- Growing inequities by immigration group among older adults: population-based analysis of access to primary care and return to in-person visits during the COVID-19 pandemic in British Columbia, Canada.BMC primary care · 2024Article
- Chronic pain management in primary care: Using population-based data to examine family physician practice patterns.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2024Article
- Care-seeking experiences of unattached patients in the Canadian health care system: Qualitative study.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2024Article
- Patient perspectives on the vital primary care role of community pharmacists in Nova Scotia, Canada: qualitative findings from the PUPPY Study.The International journal of pharmacy practice · 2024Article
- Is Dementia Related to a Longer Wait Time to be Assigned a New Primary Care Provider? An Analysis of the Nova Scotia Need a Family Practice Registry Derived from the PUPPY-Study.Canadian geriatrics journal : CGJ · 2023Article
- Concordance between 8-1-1 HealthLink BC Emergency iDoctor-in-assistance (HEiDi) virtual physician advice and subsequent health service utilization for callers to a nurse-managed provincial health information telephone service.BMC health services research · 2023Article
- "A Band-Aid Solution": Policy Maker and Primary Care Provider Perspectives on the Value of Attachment Incentives.Healthcare policy = Politiques de sante · 2023Article
- Community pharmacists' expanding roles in supporting patients before and during COVID-19: An exploratory qualitative study.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPatient access to primary healthcare (PHC) is the foundation of a strong healthcare system and healthy populations. Attachment to a regular PHC provider, a key to healthcare access, has seen a decline in some jurisdictions. This study explored the consequences of unattachment from a patient perspective, an under-studied phenomenon to date.
methodsA realist-informed qualitative study was conducted with unattached patients in Nova Scotia, Canada. Semi-structured interviews with nine participants were conducted and transcribed for analysis. The framework method was used to carry out analysis, which was guided by Donabedian's model of assessing healthcare access and quality.
resultsFive key findings were noted in this study: 1) Participants experienced a range of consequences from not having a regular PHC provider. Participants used creative strategies to 2) attempt to gain attachment to a regular PHC provider, and, to 3) address their health needs in the absence of a regular PHC provider. 4) Participants experienced negative feelings about themselves and the healthcare system, and 5) stress related to the consequences and added work of being unattached and lost care.
conclusionsUnattached patients experienced a burden of care related to lost care and managing their own health and related information, due to the download of medical record management and system navigation to them. These findings may underestimate the consequences for further at-risk populations who would not have been included in our recruitment. This may result in poorer health outcomes, which could be mitigated by interventions at the structural level, such as enhanced centralized waitlists to promote attachment. Such waitlists may benefit from a triage approach to appropriately attach patients based on need.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.