According to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, medical teleconsultations using various technologies have become an important tool to mediate communication between general practitioners (GP) and the patients in primary health care in many countries. The quality of the GP-patient communication is an essential factor, which improves the results of treatment and patient satisfaction. The objective of this paper is to study patients’ satisfaction from teleconsultation in primary care and the impact of teleconsultations on GP-patient communication through the Covid-19 pandemic in Poland. We analyse whether the teleconsultations performed without physical examinations have a positive impact on GP-patient communication. The quality of teleconsultation and GP-patient communication have been measured using a questionnaire regarding the quality of medical care in a remote care conditions. Among 36 items, nine questions have been related to the dimension of GP-patient communication and ten to system experience. Our results suggest that the quality of teleconsultations is not inferior to the quality of consultation during a face-to-face visit. The patients indicated a high level of satisfaction regarding communication with their GP during teleconsultation. We have also identified that the technical quality and the sense of comfort during teleconsultation positively impact the communication quality.

Health has a significant influence on the quality of life of a society. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many countries to implement restrictive measures to prevent its wider spread, including, inter alia, the introduction of remote healthcare in the form of teleconsultations. Therefore, there is the question of how such a change affects the quality of treatment and the primary healthcare of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article aims to examine patient satisfaction with the access to primary healthcare and the effectiveness of treatment in a condition of remote medical care caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We also analyse the impact of access to primary healthcare on the treatment effectiveness. Patient satisfaction was measured using a questionnaire assessing the quality of primary medical care. Of the 36 items studied, seven were related to the accessibility dimension and four were related to the treatment effectiveness dimension. Our results suggest that the treatment effectiveness and the access to primary healthcare services during the COVID-19 pandemic through telemedicine are quite highly rated by patients. Hence, further implementation of telemedicine in primary healthcare should improve the quality of lives of the wide society. We have also identified the access to primary healthcare has a considerable impact on the treatment effectiveness. Therefore, we recommend increasing the contact between patients and GPs via telemedicine under lockdown conditions.

In Poland, as in many other countries, the use of capitation payment schemes in primary health care is popular. Despite this popularity, the subject literature discusses its role in decreasing the quality of primary medical services. This problem is particularly important during COVID-19, when medical entities provide telehealth services to patients. The objective of the study is to examine the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on the performance of the primary health care providers in Poland under a capitation payment scheme. In this study the authors use data from interviews with personnel of medical entities and financial and administrative reports of primary health care providers in order to identify how this crisis situation impacts the performance of primary health care entities, under capitation payment system. The performance indicators include both the financial and quality measures. Selected to the case study primary health care service providers significantly improved their profitability due to considerable costs savings and reduction of services provided to patients in a time of COVID-19 pandemic. Capitation payment system proved to be inefficient, in the studied pandemic period, in terms of the services provided by primary health care service providers to patients and the funds paid to them, in exchange, by the government entities.

The rapid, unexpected, and large-scale expansion of the SARS-CoV-19 pandemic has led to a global health and economy crisis. However, although the crisis itself is a worldwide phenomenon, there have been considerable differences between respective countries in terms of SARS-CoV-19 morbidities and fatalities as well as the GDP impact. The object of this paper was to study the influence of the SARS-CoV-19 pandemic on global gross domestic product. We analyzed data relating to 176 countries in the 11-month period from February 2020 to December 2020. We employed SARS-CoV-19 morbidity and fatality rates reported by different countries as proxies for the development of the pandemic. The analysis employed in our study was based on moving median and quartiles, Kendall tau-b coefficients, and multi-segment piecewise-linear approximation with Theil–Sen trend lines. In the study, we empirically confirmed and measured the negative impact of the SARS-CoV-19 pandemic on the respective national economies. The relationship between the pandemic and the economy is not uniform and depends on the extent of the pandemic’s development. The more intense the pandemic, the more adaptive the economies of specific countries become.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify critical success factors (CSF) and to examine their influence on the performance of Polish agricultural distributors operating within local agro-food systems.Design/methodology/approach: A mixed methods research approach comprising eight in-depth expert interviews and regression analysis of unbalanced panel data based upon a sample of 22 of the most significant Polish agricultural distributors over the period 2006−2016 is applied.Findings: The following CSF have been identified and confirmed empirically: market share, gross margins (GM), high accounts payable levels, low assets maintenance, sound historical results and the use of external financing. Additionally, the regression model, based on stated variables, has been estimated. The highest regression coefficient values of GM, market share and accounts payable appear to play key roles in enhancing these companies’ performance.Research limitations/implications: First, only Polish agricultural distribution companies with the market share exceeding 80 percent are considered. Second, not all of the identified CSF have been empirically tested, but only CSF filtered out by industry experts as the most important.Practical implications: The proposed set of CSF can be directly implemented by agricultural distributors in order to focus on critical areas and therefore improve their performance.Originality/value: The first set of CSF for agricultural distributors is identified, empirically tested and presented. Furthermore, the significance of the proposed CSF has been econometrically measured.

Unlike many industries, healthcare was simultaneously affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in two opposite ways. On the one hand, the industry faced shortages and overload of many medical representatives such as nurses and infectious disease professionals, but on the other, many medical professionals such as dentists were left with considerably reduced demand. The objective of this paper is to study the efficiency of medical staff allocation and the performance of small and medium sized outpatient clinics in Poland during the COVID-19 pandemic. Owing to the contemporaneity of this problem, we have employed a multiple case study approach. Our sample comprises 5 small and medium-sized outpatient clinics located in Poland in the 3-year period 2019–2021. The results indicate a considerable percentage of medical staff employed in small and medium-sized outpatient clinics remained outside the pandemic, despite their potential provision of healthcare services. Four of the five clinics studied remained passive towards the pandemic. In view of future pandemics, the indications we provide have practical implications for outpatient clinics executives and public health policymakers.