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. 2018 May 9;19(1):56.
doi: 10.1186/s12875-018-0739-0.

Keys to success of a community of clinical practice in primary care: a qualitative evaluation of the ECOPIH project

David Lacasta Tintorer  1   2   3 , Josep Maria Manresa Domínguez  2   3 , Enriqueta Pujol-Rivera  4 , Souhel Flayeh Beneyto  1 , Xavier Mundet Tuduri  3   5 , Francesc Saigí-Rubió  6
Affiliations

Keys to success of a community of clinical practice in primary care: a qualitative evaluation of the ECOPIH project

David Lacasta Tintorer et al. BMC Fam Pract. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Background: The current reality of primary care (PC) makes it essential to have telemedicine systems available to facilitate communication between care levels. Communities of practice have great potential in terms of care and education, and that is why the Online Communication Tool between Primary and Hospital Care was created. This tool enables PC and non-GP specialist care (SC) professionals to raise clinical cases for consultation and to share information. The objective of this article is to explore healthcare professionals' views on communities of clinical practice (CoCPs) and the changes that need to be made in an uncontrolled real-life setting after more than two years of use.

Methods: A descriptive-interpretative qualitative study was conducted on a total of 29 healthcare professionals who were users and non-users of a CoCP using 2 focus groups, 3 triangular groups and 5 individual interviews. There were 18 women, 21 physicians and 8 nurses. Of the interviewees, 21 were PC professionals, 24 were users of a CoCP and 7 held managerial positions.

Results: For a system of communication between PC and SC to become a tool that is habitually used and very useful, the interviewees considered that it would have to be able to find quick, effective solutions to the queries raised, based on up-to-date information that is directly applicable to daily clinical practice. Contact should be virtual - and probably collaborative - via a platform integrated into their habitual workstations and led by PC professionals. Organisational changes should be implemented to enable users to have more time in their working day to spend on the tool, and professionals should have a proactive attitude in order to make the most if its potential. It is also important to make certain technological changes, basically aimed at improving the tool's accessibility, by integrating it into habitual clinical workstations.

Conclusions: The collaborative tool that provides reliable, up-to-date information that is highly transferrable to clinical practice is valued for its effectiveness, efficiency and educational capacity. In order to make the most of its potential in terms of care and education, organisational changes and techniques are required to foster greater use.

Keywords: Education medical continuing; Primary health care; Problem solving; Referral and consultation; Telemedicine.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study (P11/39) was approved by the Ethics and Clinical Research Committee of the Primary Care Research Institute IDIAP Jordi Gol, Barcelona, Spain, in 2011. All the participants signed informed consent forms before starting the interviews. All the recordings and transcriptions were stored in a coded manner, thereby ensuring the confidentiality and anonymity of the data. A commitment was also made to destroy the recordings on completion of the study.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
ECOPIH explanatory framework
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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