The impact of the adoption of a patient rostering model on primary care access and continuity of care in urban family practices in Ontario, Canada

BACKGROUND: Greater continuity and access to primary care results in improved patient health, satisfaction, and reduced healthcare costs. Although patient rostering is considered to be a cornerstone of a high performing primary care system and is believed to improve continuity and access, few studies have examined these relationships. This study examined the impact of the adoption of a patient rostering enhanced fee-for-service model (eFFS) on continuity, coordination of specialized care, and access. METHOD: A population-based longitudinal study was conducted using health administrative data from urban family practices in Ontario, Canada. Family physicians that transitioned from traditional FFS (tFFS) to eFFS between 2004 and 2013 were followed overtime. Physicians providing comprehensive primary care that had at least 4 years of pre-transition and 2 years of post-transition data were eligible. Patients were attributed to physicians on an annual basis by determining the provider that billed the largest dollar amount over a 2 year period. Outcomes of interest were the usual provider of care index (UPC), a referral index (RI) (% of total primary care referrals for a physician’s roster made by the main provider), and emergency department (ED) visits for family practice sensitive conditions (FPSCs). Mixed-effects segmented linear and logistic regressions were used to examine changes in outcomes while controlling for patient and provider contextual factors. RESULTS: Prior to transitioning, UPC was decreasing at a rate of 0.27%/year (95% CI: -0.34 to − 0.21, p < 0.0001). Following the transition, UPC began decreasing by an additional 0.59%/year (95% CI: -0.69 to − 0.49, p < 0.0001) relative to the pre-transition rate. RI decreased by an additional 0.34%/year (95% CI: -0.43 to − 0.24, p < 0.0001) relative to the pre-transition period, where it had been stable. The transition had minimal impact on FPSC ED visits. CONCLUSION: Continuity and coordination of specialized care slightly decreased upon transition from tFFS to eFFS. This is likely due to physicians working in groups and sharing patients following the transition to the eFFS model. Adoption of an enrolment model with after-hours care did not decrease non-urgent ED use, which may reflect the small impact that primary care access has on these types of ED visits.