Dataset Information

Electronic Consultations to Improve the Primary Care-Specialty Care Interface for Cardiology in the Medically Underserved: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.

ABSTRACT: Communication between specialists and primary care clinicians is suboptimal, and access to referrals is often limited, which can lead to lower quality, inefficiency, and errors. An electronic consultation (e-consultation) is an asynchronous, non-face-to-face consultation between a primary care clinician and a specialist using a secure electronic communication platform. The purpose of this study was to conduct a randomized controlled trial of e-consultations to test its efficacy and effectiveness in reducing wait times and improving access to specialty care.Primary care clinicians were randomized into a control (9 traditional) or an intervention (17 e-consultation) arm for referrals to cardiologists. Primary care clinicians were recruited from 12 practice sites in a community health center in Connecticut with mainly medically underserved patients. Two end points were analyzed with a Cox proportional hazards model where the hazard of either a visit or an e-consultation was linked to study arm, sex, race, and age.Thirty-six primary care clinicians participated in the study, referring 590 patients. In total, 69% of e-consultations were resolved without a visit to a cardiologist. After adjusting for covariates, median days to a review for an electronic consultation vs a visit for control patients were 5 and 24, respectively. A review of 6-month follow-up data found fewer cardiac-related emergency department visits for the intervention group.E-consultation referrals improved access to and timeliness of care for an underserved population, reduced overall specialty utilization, and streamlined specialty referrals without any increase in adverse cardiovascular outcomes. e-consultations are a potential solution for improving access to specialty care.

SUBMITTER: Olayiwola JN

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4781516 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Electronic Consultations to Improve the Primary Care-Specialty Care Interface for Cardiology in the Medically Underserved: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.

Olayiwola J Nwando JN Anderson Daren D Jepeal Nicole N Aseltine Robert R Pickett Christopher C Yan Jun J Zlateva Ianita I

Annals of family medicine 20160301 2

<h4>Purpose</h4>Communication between specialists and primary care clinicians is suboptimal, and access to referrals is often limited, which can lead to lower quality, inefficiency, and errors. An electronic consultation (e-consultation) is an asynchronous, non-face-to-face consultation between a primary care clinician and a specialist using a secure electronic communication platform. The purpose of this study was to conduct a randomized controlled trial of e-consultations to test its efficacy a ...[more]

PMID: 26951588

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Project description:African Americans and persons with low socioeconomic status (SES) are disproportionately affected by hypertension and receive less patient-centered care than less vulnerable patient populations. Moreover, continuing medical education (CME) and patient-activation interventions have infrequently been directed to improve the processes of care for these populations.To compare the effectiveness of patient-centered interventions targeting patients and physicians with the effectiveness of minimal interventions for underserved groups.Randomized controlled trial conducted from January 2002 through August 2005, with patient follow-up at 3 and 12 months, in 14 urban, community-based practices in Baltimore, Maryland.Forty-one primary care physicians and 279 hypertension patients.Physician communication skills training and patient coaching by community health workers.Physician communication behaviors; patient ratings of physicians' participatory decision-making (PDM), patient involvement in care (PIC), reported adherence to medications; systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) and BP control.Visits of trained versus control group physicians demonstrated more positive communication change scores from baseline (-0.52 vs. -0.82, p = 0.04). At 12 months, the patient+physician intensive group compared to the minimal intervention group showed significantly greater improvements in patient report of physicians' PDM (? = +6.20 vs. -5.24, p = 0.03) and PIC dimensions related to doctor facilitation (? = +0.22 vs. -0.17, p = 0.03) and information exchange (? = +0.32 vs. -0.22, p = 0.005). Improvements in patient adherence and BP control did not differ across groups for the overall patient sample. However, among patients with uncontrolled hypertension at baseline, non-significant reductions in systolic BP were observed among patients in all intervention groups-the patient+physician intensive (-13.2 mmHg), physician intensive/patient minimal (-10.6 mmHg), and the patient intensive/physician minimal (-16.8 mmHg), compared to the patient+physician minimal group (-2.0 mmHg).Interventions that enhance physicians' communication skills and activate patients to participate in their care positively affect patient-centered communication, patient perceptions of engagement in care, and may improve systolic BP among urban African-American and low SES patients with uncontrolled hypertension.

Dataset Information

Electronic Consultations to Improve the Primary Care-Specialty Care Interface for Cardiology in the Medically Underserved: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.

Publications

Electronic Consultations to Improve the Primary Care-Specialty Care Interface for Cardiology in the Medically Underserved: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.

Similar Datasets

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