Access to Care During a Pandemic: Improving Planning Efforts to Incorporate Community Primary Care Practices and Public Health Stakeholders

An effective community response during a pandemic requires public health infrastructure and capacity, the availability of technology and supplies, a knowledgeable and prepared workforce, as well as an incident management and leadership plan. Early in the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States, care providers were challenged by information gaps, supply shortages, and lack of resource coordination in caring for patients, which affected their ability to care for patients. As an emergency unfolds in a community, preemptive planning is needed to prevent barriers to quality patient care, support disease surveillance and contact tracing, and optimize the use of limited resources ranging from personal protective equipment to disease testing and hospital care. The experience of primary health-care providers during this pandemic provides useful information for understanding the gaps in emergency planning and management during a public health emergency.