INTRODUCTION:Chronic non-cancer pain affects one-third of the global population. In Chile, its prevalence is estimated at 34%, surpassing the prevalence of diabetes mellitus and hypertension. Its high costs reveal that clinical treatment causes the greatest economic impact, followed by days of work absenteeism. OBJECTIVE:This study aims to evaluate the impact on resource consumption, quality of life, and pain perception in patients with CNCP, an interdisciplinary approach implemented in Chilean primary care public health. METHODS:A concurrent cohort study was conducted with patients aged 25 to 64 with chronic non-cancer musculoskeletal pain. The population studied was 698 patients receiving primary health services in centers with similar size and territorial proximity. The clinical intervention introduced patient-centered care, psychotherapy and physiotherapy from the perspective of the neuroscience of pain. The impact analysis was conducted using negative binomial regression models, generalized linear models, and ordered logistic regressions. RESULTS:Results show that the patients who were intervened increased the number of physician consultations at primary care (IRR: 1.56; 95% CI 1.30-1.87) and increased medication consumption (coef 2.38; 95% CI 2.10-2.67) compared to control patients. Intervened patients improved their quality of life (COEF 0.14; 95% CI 0.09-0.19), and pain perception was statistically significant. Despite the health system's structural, cultural, and organizational barriers, the intervention was implemented and consolidated in daily operation, providing learnings for a further scale-up. CONCLUSION:The study demonstrates that an interdisciplinary approach to chronic non-cancer pain management in Chilean primary care improves quality of life and pain perception while increasing healthcare resource use. Despite system barriers, the intervention was successfully implemented and sustained within patient-centered care. These findings highlight the need for resource reallocation to ensure long-term sustainability and scalability through the public health system.

BackgroundMost of the evidence on risk factors for COVID-19 complications comes from North America or Europe with very little research from Latin-America. We aimed to evaluate the association between sociodemographic, clinical factors and the risk of COVID-19 complications among adults in Chile, the fifth Latin-American country with more COVID-19 reported cases since de beginning of the Pandemic.MethodsA retrospective population-based cohort study using data from electronic health records from a large Primary Care Network, linked to national hospital, immunization, Covid-19 PCR surveillance, mortality and birth records. We included people 18+ years old enrolled in the Primary Care Network between 1st January 2020 and 31st December 2021. Using Multivariate Cox proportional hazard models, we evaluate the association between sociodemographic, clinical characteristics with three COVID-19 complications: (1) a hospital admission, (2) an ICU admission, and (3) death due to a COVID-19 infection that occurred between the 1st January 2020 and the 31st December 2021.Results44,674 people were included. The mean age was 44.30 (sd 17.31), 55.6% were female, 15.9% had a type of healthcare insurance for people from the lowest category of income, 11.6% and 9.4% had a record of hypertension or diabetes mellitus diagnosis. Among the 44,674 people, 455 (1.02%) had a hospital admission due to a COVID-19 infection and 216(0.48%) of them also had an ICU admission. Among the 44,674 people,148(0.33%) died due to COVID-19 infection. Older age and male sex were consistently associated with a higher risk of the three COVID-19 complications. Hypertension and diabetes were associated with a higher risk of a hospital admission and death, but not with an ICU admissions due to COVID-19 infection. Having two or more COVID-19 vaccine doses compared with no doses was associated with a lower risk of any hospital admission (HR 0.81; 95% CI 0.77-0.84), an ICU admission (HR 0.60; 95% CI 0.57-0.63) and death (HR 0.50; 95% CI 0.46-0.54). Pregnant or puerperal women were more likely to be admitted to hospital (HR 2.89; 95% CI 1.41-5.89) or ICU (HR 3.04; 95% CI 1.01-9.14).ConclusionsSociodemographic and clinical factors associated with COVID-19 complications such as age, sex and pre-existing conditions were comparable to those reported in similar studies from higher-income countries, and can be used to predict severity in COVID-19 patients.

Objectives: Fragmentation of continuity of care impacts the health system's efficiency and increases inequity. It severely affects high-risk patients with multimorbidity, requiring coordinated care to avoid preventable complications. The Centro de Fund, implemented a transitional care strategy for high-risk adults with multimorbidity at 3 hospitals in the southeast of Santiago. The study aimed to evaluate the impact on length of hospital stay, consultations with primary care physicians and contacts after discharge, and also to describe the implementation process of the transition nurse activities.Methods: A cohort study was performed between 2017 and 2019, with 137 hospitalizations from exposed patients and 167 hospitalizations from unexposed patients. The results of the study showed a significant decrease in the length of hospital stays and an increase in consultations with physicians.Results: The results of the implementation process showed that the transition nurse followed-up in a mean of 24 hospitalizations monthly, and 91% of the discharged patients were contacted via the telephone within 7 days. The implementation process showed that the transition nurse's tasks merged with the daily clinical activities in which training on case management, transition care, and continuous support were key aspects of success.Conclusion: We conclude that transitional care intervention has a strong potential in addressing fragmentation of care and is feasible to install and sustain over time in the Chilean context. Finally, this study provides a detailed description of the intervention strategy contributing to its spread and scale-up.

Health systems face multimorbidity as the leading cause of the burden of disease and demand for healthcare services. Although non-communicable diseases are well known, and countries in Latin America have implemented strategies to its approach, tackling multimorbidity is still a challenge and an emerging topic. In response to this, Centro de Innovación en Salud ANCORA UC, in association with Servicio de Salud Metropolitano Sur Oriente and the National Health Fund, implemented a pilot study a Multimorbidity Patient-Centered Care Model in the health network. The objective was to evaluate the health care services utilization and mortality. The authors performed a cohort study with adults with non-communicable diseases, stratified by ACG® System. Analysis used logistic regression, adjusted by confounding variables. The intervened group had a significantly lower incidence of hospital admissions, length of stay, number of consultancies to hospital emergency, and number of consultancies to primary care emergency than the control group. Further, it was associated with significantly less mortality (OR 0.54; 95% CI 0.47 – 0.63). Barriers and facilitators proper from a complex intervention were approached. The model showed positive results in mortality and health services utilization. A description is provided to contribute to this emerging topic and facilitate its reproducibility.

During recent years, multimorbidity has taken relevance because of the impact of causes in the system, people, and their families, which has been a priority in the health care plan. Interventions strategies and their implementation are still an emerging topic. In this context, Centro de Innovación en Salud ANCORA UC, together with Servicio de Salud Metropolitano Sur Oriente, implemented as a pilot study High-Risk Multimorbidity Integrated Care strategy. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of this strategy in terms of health services utilization and mortality. A cohort study was conducted with high-risk patients with multimorbidity, stratified by ACG®, intervened between April 2017 and December 2019. The studied population was 3,933 patients who belonged to similar size and location primary care centers. The impact analysis was performed used generalized linear models. Results showed that intervened patients had a significantly lower incidence in mortality (OR 0.56; 95% CI 0.40–0.77), hospital admissions, length of stay, and the number of hospital emergency consultancies. With the proper barriers and facilitators of a real context intervention, the implementation process allowed the systematization and consolidation of the intervention provided in this study. The training for new roles and the constant implementation support from the Centro de Innovación en Salud ANCORA UC team were essential in the progress and success of the intervention. A complete description of the high-risk intervention strategy is provided to contribute to this emerging topic and facilitate its scale-up. We can conclude that this complex intervention was feasible to be implemented in a real context. The Ministry of Health has taken the systematization and consolidation of the conditions for the national scale-up.