The COVID-19 pandemic required health systems to rapidly rethink patient journeys. New protocols and patient flows needed to be implemented across the health system, both for Covid and non-Covid patients. This included shifting care to new intermediate facilities, telehealth modalities and the home. Some emerging models of care are here to stay, while others will become valuable ‘crisis protocols’ for future health emergencies.

The Joint Learning Network’s Learning Exchange entitled Patient Pathways and Pandemics: COVID-19 and Beyond focused on sharing innovations, lessons and resources that were used by different health systems to achieve these shifts. Divided into two workstreams – one for Covid and one for maintaining essential services – participants shared their own country experiences alongside nine Discussion Case Studies. These focused on key topics such as the classification of facilities to offer different services, home care support, the use of community health workers, real-time data for decision making, and digital health solutions.

Following these discussions, participants co-constructed an e-Library of shared resources on patient pathways, flows and triage, including many detailed documents outlining the responses of participating countries and other exemplar sites. The work of the group is now continuing in the form of a Community of Practice focused on scaling up e-consultations for virtual care. A subset of participants actively expanding the scope of e-consultations will continue to meet and learn from each other’s progress as their reforms develop.

The Learning Exchange is an initiative of the Joint Learning Network (JLN), an innovative, country-driven network of healthcare practitioners and policymakers from low- and middle-income countries globally who work together to bridge the gap between evidence and action in the health sector. 

Support from: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation