ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Health Serv.
Sec. Patient Centered Health Systems
Volume 5 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frhs.2025.1591667
Sustainability of Evidence-Based Primary Care Programs in Abu Dhabi: Impact of COVID-19
Provisionally accepted
- 1Abu Dhabi Healthcare Services, SEHA clinics, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- 2United Arab Emirates University, Al-Ain, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The Abu Dhabi Ambulatory Healthcare Services (AHS) implemented the Chronic Disease Care (CDC) and Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) programs. This study describes the implementation and integration of these two programs into the operations of AHS centers and assesses their long-term sustainability.This retrospective cohort study included all AHS centers. The sustainability of both programs was assessed twice yearly using the NCQA self-assessment audit and the CDC system audit. The care outcomes were measured through routinely collected Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) at multiple data collection points in 2018, 2021, and 2022. The study period included the COVID-19 period, providing an opportunity to examine the effect of pre-pandemic program scores on centers' performance during the pandemic. The KPIs are categorized into clinical, preventive, and utilization outcomes.Linear regression showed that the key performance indicator (KPI) for the best-performing centers had significantly higher PCMH scores, B = 0.447, p = 0.03, with no effect on the centers' financial revenue, B = 0.209, p = 0.29. Similarly, using univariate linear regression, a higher chronic disease care program assessment at the end of 2022 was significantly associated with centers performing better in clinical KPI, B = 0.480, p = 0.013. The Chronic Diseases Program assessment at the end of 2022 was as well positively and significantly associated with higher performance of centers regarding the NCQA PCMH standards, B=0.647, p<0.001.Pearson correlation analysis indicated significant correlations between clinical and preventive KPI achievements and the 2022 PCMH and CDC scores.The AHS centers successfully implemented both programs sustainably. The study findings highlight areas for sustainability research that demonstrate the value of sustainable interventions.
Keywords: sustainability, evidence-based intervention, Primary Care, Abu Dhabi, COVID-19, Ambulatory Healthcare Services, Patient-centered medical home, Chronic Disease Care
Received: 11 Mar 2025; Accepted: 30 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Baynouna Al Ketbi, Nagelkerke and Abdelbaki. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Latifa Mohammad Baynouna Al Ketbi, Abu Dhabi Healthcare Services, SEHA clinics, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.