Timely communication ctmr tool hospital11/30/2023 As members of the Partners system, these practices are part of an integrated care delivery system, connecting two academic medical centers to outpatient primary care and specialist practices in the greater Boston area. We studied two community health centers in the Partners HealthCare System in Boston, MA. ![]() We then surveyed specialists, PCPs, and patients about their referral experiences. In this study, we used an electronic application, Referral Manager, within an ambulatory EMR, to optimize delivery of the referral and supporting patient information to the specialist. We hypothesized that electronic communication via a referrals tool embedded within an EMR has the potential to improve the timeliness and quality of referral communication and may also improve patients’ referral experiences. 15 To our knowledge, no controlled trial of electronic communication of referral information has been performed. 11 Benefits of e-mail communication about referrals include the option for asynchronous communication, increased flexibility, and opportunities for back-and-forth interchange and enhanced rapport. 10 Computer access to chart notes was associated with increased communication between referring physicians and specialists, with specialists receiving written or e-mail referral letters more than twice as often as by telephone or other verbal communication. 13, 14įew studies have examined the effects of electronic medical records (EMRs) on care coordination in general or on the referral process in particular. 11 Other studies have looked at the benefits of physician training on how to write letters 12 and the value of form letters an d standard templates to improve letter quality from both PCPs and specialists. 2 Specialists who received timely patient referral information reported providing optimal care twice as often as specialists who did not. Strategies for improving communication of referral information have been proposed, including scheduling the specialist appointment from the referring physician’s office and providing pertinent information to the specialist, which have been shown to increase referral completion. This represents a major opportunity for improvement. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 Studies have highlighted the problem of poor communication between PCPs and specialists in terms of timeliness and content. Other reasons include dissatisfaction with redundancies in the referral process, missing information in the referral communication, time required to write a referral note, and difficulty in finding a specialist. 2, 3, 4 About half the time, the reason for dissatisfaction is a delayed or missing referral letter and reports. Both primary care and specialist physicians value this information exchange for shared patients, 1 but dissatisfaction with the current referral process is widespread among primary care physicians (PCPs) and their consultants. Facilitating transmission of referral information electronically can improve physician communication.Ĭommunicating patient information at the time of specialty referral is essential to high-quality consultation and coordinated, safe patient care. ![]() Conclusion: Referrals are a key outpatient transition of care. ![]() Finally, patients of intervention PCPs were more likely than patients of control PCPs to report that specialists had received information before their visit (70 percent vs. 50 percent, P = 0.08), a finding of borderline statistical significance. Intervention PCPs more often received return communication from specialists (69 percent vs. 12 percent, P <0.0001), a finding that persisted after adjustment (OR = 3.3, P = 0.008). Results: Specialists more often received information before the referral visit from intervention PCPs versus nonintervention PCPs (62 percent vs. Methods: We studied one practice site that implemented the referral tool and one that did not and surveyed affiliated specialists, PCPs, and patients about referral communication. We implemented an electronic referral tool to analyze its impact on communication between primary care physicians (PCPs) and specialists. Objectives: Poor outpatient referral communication is an important quality and safety issue.
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