Primary Care Teams Capacity Estimator (CapEs): Synthesizing evidence and developing the CapEs simulation software to support Canadian primary care policy makers and healthcare planners better reason about primary care team capacity in a time of crisis.

This project is designed to help decision makers and primary care planners better estimate how team based primary care can help address the gaps in primary care in Canada. Primary care is key to sustainable healthcare worldwide. In Canada, due to a number of factors, including the COVID pandemic and increasing burnout, our primary care systems are in crisis. Millions of Canadians without a primary care provider and 40% of family physicians are expected to retire in the next 10 years. Despite increases in medical school enrolment, changes in payment structures, and other incentives, primary care is crumbling. To help address this crisis, provinces are expanding primary care teams to build capacity and address the growing primary care needs of Canadians. However, there is insufficient evidence and a lack of tools to help decision makers and planners reason about how teams address the gaps provincially or locally. This research, part of the Primary Care Team CAPacity EStimator (CapEs) project, seeks to develop some of the missing evidence to guide policy makers and incorporate it into an accessible web application so decision makers and planners can use the evidence while planning team-based primary care. Specifically, this research will 1. Co-develop and validate the evidence of how different providers (nurses, social workers, pharmacists, etc.) add capacity to a primary care team. We will use a combination of literature review and modified Delphi with experts. 2. Translate that newly synthesized evidence into the CapEs web application, that will allow 3. Share the CapEs web application through various webinars and training opportunities with primary care planners and decision makers in multiple provinces. An initial version of CapEs software has been developed at the Primary Care Innovation Support Unit in BC. The multidisciplinary research team has extensive experience in team based care planning including at: clinical, research, and policy levels.