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| Themes | Description | Illustrative quotes |
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| Patients were unaware they could access primary care | Patients had health care needs for which they normally would have accessed health care but many were unaware that despite the pandemic lockdown, they were still able to contact their care providers | “If they had medical concerns, just like little tiny things that they would have normally called the doctor for and come in for, they just didn’t realize that they could call us or whatnot if they needed something simple.” [HPID1]
“I think for the most part people were just kind of unsure as to what was available to them, and how to reach out to their family doctor if needed… a common response was: ‘Oh, I didn’t know you guys were open!’” [HPID4]
“There was a lot of confusion about the medical services. So you know, there’s a lot of people that didn’t know, a lot of the community was closed, a lot of people assumed that doctor’s offices were closed.” [HPID7] |
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| Risk screening protocol was efficient and feasible to implement | The risk protocol was perceived to be efficient and feasible to implement in terms of ease and time (quick). Remote electronic medical record access and interdisciplinary involvement contributed to efficiency as each discipline was readily accessible to contribute within their scope of practice | “So it’s a structured approach to trying to identify risks, and it is efficient, and I think that we could implement it very quickly.” [HPID6]
“The fact that I could get online for this charting at home within a couple hours changed my work life completely… with a good team structure, with access to charts, I could just do whatever needed to be done.” [HPID3]
“I got the call initially, for social isolation or caregiver stress and then medication might have been an issue as well. So then I would message our pharmacist and then it was great. That worked out really well, it worked when it needed to.” [HPID9] |
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| Outreach provided reassurance that health care was available if needed | As many patients were not aware that the centre was open and that they could access healthcare, the outreach calls served to inform and reassure patients that health care was available if needed | “Just letting them know that we’re here for them. I think those things are understated in terms of how beneficial that is for people.” [HCPID2]
“I think patients benefited by being reassured that we were still here and that we were available to them and that we could contact them if needed… and that we were here to support them.” [HCPID4]
“Their appreciation to know that we weren’t closed, if you called in you would get somebody. I can’t tell you how I really think it put a lot of people at ease, took away their stress.” [HCPID3] |
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| Risk screening protocol identified potential risks requiring intervention/crisis aversion | The outreach calls gave patients and caregivers an opportunity to voice concerns for which they may not have otherwise reached out for assistance; this allowed for early identification of potential risks that could have led to crises/health destabilization without early intervention | “I would say that our C5-75 [virtual outreach] has identified many people who we did eventually bring in because of identification of risk… There were many that thought they were doing just fine and that’s great, but there are enough that it was probably the tipping point that allowed them to access care before that crisis… And there were actually some real crises as well that were identified where the caregiver just didn’t know where to turn to.” [HCPID6]
“Just not letting people sit on problems and being a little bit more proactive and trying to catch things before they’re a big problem for people if it goes on for too long.“[HCPID1]
“I think absolutely [crisis aversion] … I sometimes wonder what would have happened if we didn’t intervene. It might not have been so good.” [HCPID9] |
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| Outreach was meaningful work for care providers during the pandemic | Health professionals involved in this initiative found it to be meaningful and important work, particularly within the context of pandemic uncertainty and anxiety for patients | “I like talking to them. I thought it put them at ease. I really thought there was meaning to it even if they answered no to all of the questions.” [HCPID3]
“I felt like, to me it was important that we were reaching out to them because you never know what’s going on with that demographic, and especially in the middle of a life changing event, so for me it felt like important work to be doing at this time.” [HCPID5]
“It was a way for [health professionals] to help in time of crisis. I saw a real enthusiasm almost in our healthcare professionals because they could actually do something that might make a difference… so it was almost like in some ways a new program that pulled a lot of people together, all inspired by the same desire to make a difference during a crisis” [HCPID6] |
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| Health professionals support future implementation | There was much support for implementing the virtual outreach risk assessment should there be another pandemic or situation with restrictions to access to health care | “I would recommend we do this again because there’s a demographic that is going to need help and they might not know to reach out to us, they might not know who to reach out to at all.” [HCPID5]
“I think we should just start planning for something with the expectation that even if [another pandemic lockdown] doesn’t happen, we have a plan in place… so that we’re not in that situation where we’re facing another challenge and we don’t have anything to fall back on.” [HCPID8]
“I think we should be doing these calls….Especially if there is a resurgence of this virus and I think it’s a good thing to continue for sure. I think we just have to have a plan in place for this.” [HCPID9] |
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