Integrating rural community screening initiatives into general practice: a qualitative evaluation of the Care2U rural outreach pilot program

Abstract

Diabetes and cardiovascular disease profoundly affect rural Australians. The Care2U program was proposed to integrate rural community-based screening with general practice systems. Its innovative feature is a closed-loop communication model between outreach teams and general practitioners (GPs), enabling systematic tracking of diagnoses, management and outcomes for screening-detected medical conditions. This study explored the acceptability, feasibility and sustainability of the proposed model from healthcare providers’ perspectives.