Storylines of family medicine VI: ways of being-in the office with patients.

Storylines of Family Medicine is a 12-part series of thematically linked mini-essays with accompanying illustrations that explore the many dimensions of family medicine, as interpreted by individual family physicians and medical educators in the USA and elsewhere around the world. In 'VI: ways of being-in the office with patients', authors address the following themes: 'Patient-centred care-cultivating deep listening skills', 'Doctor as witness', 'Words matter', 'Understanding others-metaphor and its use in medicine', 'Communicating with patients-making good use of time', 'The patient-centred medical home-aspirations for the future', 'Routine, ceremony or drama?' and 'The life course'. May readers better appreciate the nuances of patient care through these essays.

Implementation of a Virtual Asynchronous Scribe Program to Reduce Physician Burnout.

GOAL: Administrative burden is one of many potential root causes of physician burnout. Scribe documentation assistance can reduce this burden. However, traditional in-person scribe services are challenged by consistent staffing because the model requires the physical presence of a scribe and limits the team to a single individual. In addition, in-person scribes cannot provide the flexible support required for virtual care encounters, which can now pivot geographically and temporally. To respond to these challenges, our health network implemented an asynchronous virtual scribe model and evaluated the program's impact on clinician perceptions of burnout across multiple outpatient specialties. METHODS: Using a mixed-methods, pre-/postdesign, this evaluation measured the impact of an asynchronous virtual scribe program on physician burnout. Physicians were given the Professional Fulfillment Index tool (to self-assess their mental state) and free-text comment surveys before virtual scribe initiation and again at 3-, 6-, and 12-month intervals after program implementation. Descriptive statistics of survey results and qualitative review of free-text entries were analyzed for themes of facilitation and barriers to virtual scribe use. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Of 50 physician participants in this study, 42 (84%) completed the preintervention survey and 15 (36%) completed all 4 surveys; 25 participants (50%) discontinued scribe use after 12 months. Burnout levels-as defined by dread, exhaustion, lack of enthusiasm, decrease in empathy, and decrease in colleague connection-all trended toward improvement during this study. Importantly, quality, time savings, burnout, and productivity moved in positive directions as well. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The cost burden to physicians and the COVID-19 pandemic inhibited the continued use of asynchronous virtual medical scribes. Nevertheless, those who continued in the program have reported positive outcomes, which indicates that the service can be a viable and effective tool to reduce physician burnout.

A Novel Mixed Methods Approach Combining Geospatial Mapping and Qualitative Inquiry to Identify Multilevel Policy Targets: The Focused Rapid Assessment Process (fRAP) Applied to Cancer Survivorship.

Multi-level perspectives across communities, medical systems and policy environments are needed, but few methods are available for health services researchers with limited resources. We developed a mixed method health policy approach, the focused Rapid Assessment Process (fRAP), that is designed to uncover multi-level modifiable barriers and facilitators contributing to public health issues. We illustrate with a study applying fRAP to the issue of cancer survivorship care. Through this multi-level investigation we identified two major modifiable areas impacting high-quality cancer survivorship care: 1) the importance of cancer survivorship guidelines/data, 2) the need for improved oncology-primary care relationships. This article contributes to the mixed methods literature by coupling geospatial mapping to qualitative rapid assessment to efficiently identify policy change targets.

Substance use disorder approaches in US primary care clinics with national reputations as workforce innovators.

BACKGROUND: Over the last decade, primary care clinics in the United States have responded both to national policies encouraging clinics to support substance use disorders (SUD) service expansion and to regulations aiming to curb the opioid epidemic. OBJECTIVE: To characterize approaches to SUD service expansion in primary care clinics with national reputations as workforce innovators. METHODS: Comparative case studies were conducted to characterize different approaches among 12 primary care clinics purposively and iteratively recruited from a national registry of workforce innovators. Observational field notes and qualitative interviews from site visits were coded and analysed to identify and characterize clinic attributes. RESULTS: Codes describing clinic SUD expansion approaches emerged from our analysis. Clinics were characterized as: avoidant (n = 3), contemplative (n = 5) and responsive (n = 4). Avoidant clinics were resistant to planning SUD service expansion; had no or few on-site behavioural health staff; and lacked on-site medication treatment (previously termed medication-assisted therapy) waivered providers. Contemplative clinics were planning or had partially implemented SUD services; members expressed uncertainties about expansion; had co-located behavioural healthcare providers, but no on-site medication treatment waivered and prescribing providers. Responsive clinics had fully implemented SUD; members used non-judgmental language about SUD services; had both co-located SUD behavioural health staff trained in SUD service provision and waivered medication treatment physicians and/or a coordinated referral pathway. CONCLUSIONS: Efforts to support SUD service expansion should tailor implementation supports based on specific clinic training and capacity building needs. Future work should inform the adaption of evidence-based practices that are responsive to resource constraints to optimize SUD treatment access.

Primary care clinics in the US have been encouraged to expand addiction services to increase treatment access and respond to the opioid epidemic. This study uses structured observations and depth interviews to assess and compare how primary care clinics with innovative workforces have responded to the growing need for substance use disorder treatment. Each of the clinics studied represents a 'case.' We systematically compared cases to understand how and if addiction services were expanded. Twelve clinic 'cases' were coded and characterized based on a continuum of receptivity ranging from avoidant (i.e., resistant), contemplative (i.e., organization members plan to implement change) and responsive (i.e. expansions implemented). Our analysis characterized three clinics as avoidant to expanding addiction services reporting no plans to respond to calls to expand addiction services. Five clinics were characterized as contemplative, meaning they recognized the need but still had reservations and concerns about the expansion. Four clinics were characterized as responsive to addiction service expansion and had several organizational-wide strategies to assess, intervene and treat patients with addictions. Despite national and state-based policies to entice clinics to expand addiction services there was a diversity of approaches observed in clinics. Avoidant and contemplative clinics may need implementation support to build capacity for this type of delivery expansion.

Identifying priority and bright spot areas for improving diabetes care: a geospatial approach.

The objective of this study was to describe a novel geospatial methodology for identifying poor-performing (priority) and well-performing (bright spot) communities with respect to diabetes management at the ZIP Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA) level. This research was the first phase of a mixed-methods approach known as the focused rapid assessment process (fRAP). Using data from the Lehigh Valley Health Network in eastern Pennsylvania, geographical information systems mapping and spatial analyses were performed to identify diabetes prevalence and A1c control spatial clusters and outliers. We used a spatial empirical Bayes approach to adjust diabetes-related measures, mapped outliers and used the Local Moran's I to identify spatial clusters and outliers. Patients with diabetes were identified from the Lehigh Valley Practice and Community-Based Research Network (LVPBRN), which comprised primary care practices that included a hospital-owned practice, a regional practice association, independent small groups, clinics, solo practitioners and federally qualified health centres. Using this novel approach, we identified five priority ZCTAs and three bright spot ZCTAs in LVPBRN. Three of the priority ZCTAs were located in the urban core of Lehigh Valley and have large Hispanic populations. The other two bright spot ZCTAs have fewer patients and were located in rural areas. As the first phase of fRAP, this method of identifying high-performing and low-performing areas offers potential to mitigate health disparities related to diabetes through targeted exploration of local factors contributing to diabetes management. This novel approach to identification of populations with diabetes performing well or poor at the local community level may allow practitioners to target focused qualitative assessments where the most can be learnt to improve diabetic management of the community.

Identifying Bright Spot Counties for Appropriate Diabetes Preventive Care: A Geospatial, Positive Deviance Approach.

Positive deviance approaches, which have been used to identify and study high performers (bright spots) and translate their successes to poorer performers, offer great potential for chronic disease management. However, there are few examples of applying positive deviance approaches across different geographic contexts. Building on prior research that developed a new measure for appropriate diabetes preventive care (DMPrevCare) and identified priority counties for this strategy, we introduce a geospatial approach for identifying bright spot counties and case matching them to priority counties that need improvement. We used the Local Moran's I tool to identify DMPrevCare spatial outliers, which are counties with larger percentages of Medicare beneficiaries receiving appropriate diabetes preventive care (DMPrevCare) surrounded by counties with smaller percentages of Medicare beneficiaries receiving DMPrevCare. We define these spatial outliers as bright spots. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation County Health Rankings Peer Counties tool was used to link bright spot counties to previously identified priority counties. We identified 25 bright spot counties throughout the southern and mountain western United States. Bright spot counties were linked to 45 priority counties, resulting in 23 peer (bright/priority) county groups. A geospatial approach was shown to be effective in identifying peer counties across the United States that had either poor or strong metrics related to DMPrevCare, but were otherwise similar in terms of demographics and socioeconomic characteristics. We describe a framework for the next steps in the positive deviance process, which identifies potential factors in bright spot counties that positively impact diabetes care and how they may be applied to their peer priority counties.

Identifying diabetes management opportunity areas in the USA.

Using adherence to diabetes management guidelines as a case study, this paper applied a novel geospatial hot-spot and cold-spot methodology to identify priority counties to target interventions. Data for this study were obtained from the Dartmouth Atlas of Healthcare, the United States Census Bureau's American Community Survey and the University of Wisconsin County Health Rankings. A geospatial approach was used to identify four tiers of priority counties for diabetes preventive and management services: diabetes management cold-spots, clusters of counties with low rates of adherence to diabetes preventive and management services (Tier D); Medicare spending hot-spots, clusters of counties with high rates of spending and were diabetes management cold-spots (Tier C); preventable hospitalisation hot-spots, clusters of counties with high rates of spending and are diabetes management cold-spots (Tier B); and counties that were located in a diabetes management cold-spot cluster, preventable hospitalisation hot-spot cluster and Medicare spending hot-spot cluster (Tier A). The four tiers of priority counties were geographically concentrated in Texas and Oklahoma, the Southeast and central Appalachia. Of these tiers, there were 62 Tier A counties. Rates of preventable hospitalisations and Medicare spending were higher in Tier A counties compared with national averages. These same counties had much lower rates of adherence to diabetes preventive and management services. The novel geospatial mapping approach used in this study may allow practitioners and policy makers to target interventions in areas that have the highest need. Further refinement of this approach is necessary before making policy recommendations.

The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Framing Typology for Understanding the Structure, Function, and Outcomes of PCMHs.

INTRODUCTION: Patient-centered medical homes (PCHMs) aspire to transform today's challenged primary care services. However, it is unclear which PCMH characteristics produce specific outcomes of interest for care delivery. This study tested a novel typology of PCMH practice transformation, the PCMH framing typology, and evaluated measurable outcomes by each type. METHODS: Using the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative 2012 to 2013 Annual Review, this secondary analysis of the published PCMH literature extracted data from publications of 59 PCMHs. Each of the 59 sites was categorized as 1 of 4 PCMH types: add-on, renovated, hybrid, or integrated. Six outcome measures (cost reductions, decreased emergency department/hospital utilization, improved quality, improved access, increased preventive services, and improved patient satisfaction) were independently coded for each site. Practices were combined based on type, and mean outcomes scores for each measure were displayed on radar graphs for comparison. RESULTS: While each type showed a characteristic pattern of success, only the integrated type improved in all 6 outcomes. No type achieved high success in all measures. DISCUSSION: There seem to be 4 types of PCMH, each of which shows a distinctive outcomes profile. Within the PCMH framing typology, direction is emerging for how best to transform primary care to achieve the greatest success.