Supporting Preventive Care in Overburdened Health Systems
The Big Problem
In overburdened healthcare systems, preventive care is often treated as an added workload rather than a core component of capacity planning. Clinics are fully booked, staff are stretched, and schedules are organized around patients’ immediate clinical needs. Adding screenings, follow-ups, or risk monitoring might seem to increase pressure in settings where capacity is already constrained, even though preventive care is specifically designed to reduce future demand on the system.
Underutilizing preventive services carries measurable consequences. When preventive services are deferred, conditions that could have been addressed earlier may progress into cases that require longer visits, additional referrals, and more intensive treatment. Evidence from universal healthcare systems, including Canada’s, suggests that every $1 invested in preventive care may save roughly $14 in future healthcare and economic costs.1
Preventive care is often underutilized because it’s harder to deliver than acute care within existing operations. Scheduling preventive visits often requires more coordination, and it doesn’t always align with how clinics actually run. Billing support can be slower or less predictable, and added documentation for referrals may add steps and unnecessary administrative burden to clinicians already working under pressure. When time’s tight, those frictions create bottlenecks and drag.
Behavioral science offers methods for reducing these types of friction. Smart defaults embedded in clinical workflows could make preventive care opt-out for patients with family health providers, without increasing clinician workload. Automating billing support can leverage prevention without added administrative effort. Multi-step preventive pathways might be reduced to fewer actions, allowing preventive care to be delivered consistently within routine practice, even when systems are operating under strain.
About the Author
Maryam Sorkhou
Maryam holds an Honours BSc in Psychology from the University of Toronto and is currently completing her PhD in Medical Science at the same institution. She studies how sex and gender interact with mental health and substance use, using neurobiological and behavioural approaches. Passionate about blending neuroscience, psychology, and public health, she works toward solutions that center marginalized populations and elevate voices that are often left out of mainstream science.
