Preservation of Person-Centered Care Through Videoconferencing for Patient Follow-up During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Case Study of a Multidisciplinary Care Team

• Published in: JMIR Formative Research
• Main Authors: Silsand, Line, Severinsen, Gro-Hilde, Berntsen, Gro
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: JMIR Publications 2021
• Subjects: Medicine; R; Norway; Northern Norway
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.2196/25220; https://doaj.org/article/a97d515fca4a4b3097006b37bb0b99ca

BackgroundThe Patient-Centered Team (PACT) focuses on the transitional phase between hospital and primary care for older patients in Northern Norway with complex and long-term needs. PACT emphasizes a person-centered care approach whereby the sharing of power and the patient’s response to “What matters to you?” drive care decisions. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, videoconferencing was the only option for assessing, planning, coordinating, and performing treatment and care. ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to report the experience of the PACT multidisciplinary health care team in shifting rapidly from face-to-face care to using videoconferencing for clinical and collaborative services during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explores how PACT managed to maintain person-centered care under these conditions. MethodsThis case study takes a qualitative approach based on four semistructured focus group interviews carried out in May and June 2020 with 19 PACT members and leaders. ResultsThe case study illustrates that videoconferencing is a good solution for many persons with complex and long-term needs and generates new opportunities for interaction between patients and health care personnel. Persons with complex and long-term needs are a heterogeneous group, and for many patients with reduced cognitive capacity or hearing and vision impairment, the use of videoconferencing was challenging and required support from relatives or health care personnel. The study shows that using videoconferencing offered an opportunity to use health care personnel more efficiently, reduce travelling time for patients, and improve the information exchange between health care levels. This suggests that the integration of videoconferencing contributed to the preservation of the person-centered focus on care during the COVID-19 pandemic. There was an overall agreement in PACT that face-to-face care needed to be at the core of the person-centered care approach; the main use of videoconferencing was to support ...