Evaluating the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Monthly Trends in Primary Care

Abstract

Introduction As the COVID-19 pandemic progressed, multiple barriers arose for patients and providers in the primary care setting. Despite the attempt to utilize telemedicine to overcome barriers, visits remained lower than pre-pandemic levels. This raises concern for preventative medicine and chronic disease management. Methods This study aimed to evaluate the impact of the pandemic in primary care by utilizing two years of data from a family medicine clinic. Data obtained from the electronic medical record for March 2019 through February 2020 and March 2020 through February 2021 were used to evaluate monthly trends from the year before the pandemic and the first year of the pandemic in the following six categories: hypertension control, diabetes control, lipid profile screening, breast cancer screening, colorectal cancer screening, and cervical cancer screening. Results The paired t-tests found a significant difference in the averages between the two years for all categories except hypertension control. The results for chi-square demonstrated a significant difference in four months for cervical cancer screening, five months for hypertension control and colorectal cancer screening, nine months for diabetes control and lipid profile screening, and 10 months for breast cancer screening. Conclusion These results show a profound impact of the pandemic on both preventative medicine and chronic disease management. This study had a large sample size but is not generalizable to the entire population. These results can help guide quality improvement measures going forward. However, further research is necessary to better understand the full extent of COVID-19's impact on primary care.