HIV Care in Canada: Adopting a patient-centered approach
03/15/2019
Medical advances have allowed for more Canadians affected by HIV to live long and full lives. However, as this population lives longer, they often must simultaneously manage other health complications associated with aging.
How is Canada coping with this shift in healthcare needs?
Patient-Centered Medical Homes are a new way of structuring primary care delivery in Canada. These homes act as hubs that facilitate partnerships between patients, their physicians, and the diversity of other teams involved in a patient’s care plan. This model is designed to make delivery of care more efficient, while improving health outcomes for patients.
In a recent publication, Dr. Claire Kendall and her LHIV team ask whether HIV care settings have adopted a similar approach to care delivery. She surveyed 22 HIV-care settings to partially answer this question. Of them, 12 were primary care settings and 10 were specialist-care settings. Claire’s goal was to determine whether HIV care practices align with the Patient-Centered Medical Home style of care delivery.
The surveyed HIV care settings aligned well with the philosophy of the Patient-Centered Medical Home. Claire found that health professionals from multiple disciplines frequently worked together to provide care to patients—a key characteristic of the Patient-Centered Medical Home model. The surveyed settings also offered extra services such as after-hour telephone and telemedicine services. They also worked to help their patients find affordable medications.
While the surveyed care settings did many things well, Claire notes that there is room for improvement. She recommends that HIV care settings could use technology to improve population management and quality-improvement strategies. She also found that these settings could benefit from improved mental health services to achieve better health outcomes for people living with HIV.
As patients live longer and potentially develop more complex conditions, care settings must evolve to meet these diverse needs. Claire’s study shows that HIV settings have already begun to adapt. Through their interdisciplinary practices, they are examples of a new way to deliver primary care to this vulnerable population.
Read the full study
here.