PLoS ONE
Volume 11, Issue 1, 2016

Knowledge of healthcare coverage for refugee claimants: Results from a survey of health service providers in montreal (Article) (Open Access)

Ruiz-Casares M. , Cleveland J. , Oulhote Y. , Dunkley-Hickin C. , Rousseau C.
  • a Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada, SHERPA-Institut Universitaire, Centre Intégré Universitaire de Santé, Services Sociaux du Centre-Ouest-de-l'Ile-de-Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada
  • b SHERPA-Institut Universitaire, Centre Intégré Universitaire de Santé, Services Sociaux du Centre-Ouest-de-l'Ile-de-Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada
  • c Harvard School of Public Health, Cambridge, MA, United States
  • d Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Community Studies, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC, Canada
  • e Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada, SHERPA-Institut Universitaire, Centre Intégré Universitaire de Santé, Services Sociaux du Centre-Ouest-de-l'Ile-de-Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada

Abstract

Following changes to the Interim Federal Health (IFH) program in Canada in 2012, this study investigates health service providers' knowledge of the healthcare coverage for refugee claimants living in Quebec. An online questionnaire was completed by 1,772 staff and physicians from five hospitals and two primary care centres in Montreal. Low levels of knowledge and significant associations between knowledge and occupational group, age, and contact with refugees were documented. Social workers, respondents aged 40â€"49 years, and those who reported previous contact with refugee claimants seeking healthcare were significantly more likely to have 2 or more correct responses. Rapid and multiple changes to the complex IFH policy have generated a high level of confusion among healthcare providers. Simplification of the system and a knowledge transfer strategy aimed at improving healthcare delivery for IFH patients are urgently needed, proposing easy avenues to access rapidly updated information and emphasizing ethical and clinical issues. © 2016 Ruiz-Casares et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Author Keywords

[No Keywords available]

Index Keywords

Health Personnel doctor patient relation primary medical care refugee multicenter study health care policy insurance clinical trial health care personnel Quebec human Insurance Coverage Refugees middle aged Aged social worker clinical study Surveys and Questionnaires health program Humans male Canada staff female questionnaire adult hospital health literacy primary health care
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84958231380&doi=10.1371%2fjournal.pone.0146798&partnerID=40&md5=3966d2e805ac280a33b9328a870ea9f9
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0146798
ISSN: 19326203
Cited by: 11
Original Language: English