Exploring Rehabilitation Provider Experiences of Providing Health Services for People Living with Long COVID in Alberta

Background: COVID-19 infection can result in persistent symptoms, known as long COVID. Understanding the provider experience of service provision for people with long COVID symptoms is crucial for improving care quality and addressing potential challenges. Currently, there is limited knowledge about the provider experience of long COVID service delivery. Aim: To explore the provider experience of delivering health services to people living with long COVID at select primary, rehabilitation, and specialty care sites. Design and setting: This study employed qualitative description methodology. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with frontline providers at primary care, rehabilitation, and specialty care sites across Alberta. Participants were interviewed between June and September 2022. Method: Interviews were conducted virtually over zoom, audio-recorded, and transcribed with consent. Iterative inductive qualitative content analysis of transcripts was employed. Relationships between emergent themes were examined for causality or reciprocity, then clustered into content areas and further abstracted into a priori categories through their interpretive joint meaning. Participants: A total of 15 participants across Alberta representing diverse health care disciplines were interviewed. Results: Main themes include: the importance of education for long COVID recognition; the role of symptom acknowledgement in patient-centred long COVID service delivery; the need to develop recovery expectations; and opportunities for improvement of navigation and wayfinding to long COVID services. Conclusions: Provider experience of delivering long COVID care can be used to inform patient-centred service delivery for persons with long COVID symptoms.