Patients with complex chronic conditions: Health care use and clinical events associated with access to a patient portal.
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ABSTRACT: Background
For patients with diabetes, many with multiple complex chronic conditions, using a patient portal can support self-management and coordination of health care services, and may impact the frequency of in-person health care visits.Objective
To examine the impact of portal access on the number of outpatient visits, emergency visits, and preventable hospitalizations.Design
Observational study comparing patients' visit rates with and without portal access, using marginal structural modeling with inverse probability weighting estimates to account for potential bias due to confounding and attrition.Setting
Large integrated delivery system which implemented a patient portal (2006-2007).Patients
We examined 165,447 patients with diabetes defined using clinical registries. Our study included both patients with diabetes-only and patients with multiple complex chronic conditions (diabetes plus asthma, congestive artery disease, congestive heart failure, or hypertension).Measurements
We examined rates of outpatient office visits, emergency room visits, and preventable hospitalizations (for ambulatory care sensitive conditions).Results
Access to a patient portal was associated with significantly higher rates of outpatient office visits, in both patients with diabetes only and in patients with multiple complex conditions (p<0.05). In patients with multiple complex chronic conditions, portal use was also associated with significantly fewer emergency room visits (3.9 fewer per 1,000 patients per month, p<0.05) and preventable hospital stays (0.8 fewer per 1,000 patients per month, p<0.05). In patients with only diabetes, the results were directionally consistent but not statistically significantly associated with emergency room visits and preventable hospital stays.Limitations
Observational study in an integrated delivery system.Conclusion
Access to a patient portal can increase engagement in outpatient visits, potentially addressing unmet clinical needs, and reduce downstream health events that lead to emergency and hospital care, particularly among patients with multiple complex conditions.
SUBMITTER: Reed ME
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6583978 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:BackgroundContinuity of care has been explored largely from academic and service provider perspectives, and in relation to adult patient/client groups. We interviewed parents of children with complex chronic health conditions to examine how their experiences and perceptions of continuity of care fit with these perspectives; and to identify the salient factors in the experience of, and factors contributing to, continuity in this population.MethodsParents of 47 elementary school-aged children with spina bifida, Down syndrome, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Duchenne muscular dystrophy or cystic fibrosis participated in semi-structured interviews. Parents described and mapped the pattern of their interactions with service providers over time in all domains relevant to their child's health, well-being, and development (medical, rehabilitational, educational, and social supportive services), with particular attention paid to their perceptions of connectedness or coherency in these interactions. Verbatim transcripts were analyzed thematically using a framework approach to impose structure regarding parents' perspectives on continuity of care.ResultsExisting academic concepts of relational, informational and management continuity were all discernable in parents' narratives. A thorough knowledge of the child on the part of service providers emerged as extremely important to parents; such knowledge was underpinned by continuity of personal relationships, principally, and also by written information. For this population, notions of continuity extend to the full range of service providers these children and families need to achieve optimal health status, and are not limited to physicians and nurses. Communication among providers was seen as integral to perceived continuity. Compartmentalization of services and information led to parents assuming a necessary, though at times, uncomfortable, coordinating role. Geographic factors, institutional structures and practices, provider attitudes, and, on occasion, parent preferences and judgments, were all found to create barriers to "seamless" management and provision of care continuity across providers, settings, and sectors.ConclusionsThese findings add new perspectives to the understanding of continuity within chronically ill children's health care. They are relevant to contemporary initiatives to improve continuity of services to children with special health care needs, demonstrate the need for parental support of their important role in maintaining continuity, and suggest avenues for further research.
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