High Value Care in Cancer Surveillance and Screening: Evaluating an e-Curriculum for Primary Care Providers.

BACKGROUND: With an expected shortage of oncologists, primary care providers (PCPs) may need to manage more cancer surveillance and screening, areas where educational resources for PCPs have been limited. The goal of this e-curriculum was for PCPs to learn surveillance and screening for several common cancers. METHODS: The e-curriculum covered breast and colorectal cancer surveillance and lung cancer screening with (1) a pre-test assessing knowledge, attitudes, practice patterns, and confidence; (2) case vignette-based teaching; and (3) an immediate post-test (with knowledge and confidence items identical to the pre-test) providing feedback. A delayed post-test was administered several months later. The curriculum and test items were developed by content experts and evaluated in a primary care group practice. RESULTS: Of 167 community PCPs, 152 completed the pre-test (91%), 145 completed the immediate post-test (87%), and 63 completed the delayed post-test (37%); 62 PCPs completed all three tests (37%). The median score on the pre-test was 43%, immediate post-test was 93%, and delayed post-test was 70%. For PCPs completing all three tests, the median scores were 50%, 90%, and 70%, respectively (p < 0.0001). The percentage of PCPs confident in their knowledge 4 to 6 months after module completion compared to the pre-test baseline was statistically significant for lung cancer screening but not for cancer surveillance. CONCLUSION: This curriculum provided concise, effective education for PCPs on 3 common cancers. Limitations include content breadth and lack of data reflecting physician ordering patterns. Curricular strengths include its accessibility, immediate feedback, and effectiveness, with a significant improvement in immediate and delayed post-test knowledge. Given a lack of increased confidence to provide cancer surveillance, PCPs should rely on electronic medical record tools and other resources to guide appropriate surveillance care.

Building a Medicaid Ambulatory Complex Care Program Within an Urban Medical Home.

Five percent of Medicaid patients account for 50% of total costs. Preventable costs are often incurred by patients with complex medical, behavioral, and social needs who disproportionately utilize acute care services. Evidence for design, implementation, and evaluation of complex care programs in the urban Medicaid population is lacking. The article provides a description of a complex care program (CCP), challenges, and early outcomes based on a pre-post evaluation. The CCP was located within an existing urban medical home. Patients were eligible if they lived within 10 miles of the clinic and had at least 2 inpatient visits and/or 3 emergency room visits within the prior 6 months. Ambulatory Care Groups® were used to predict estimated total costs of patients, who were included if potential cost savings exceeded $5000. Patient experience and quality of care were assessed using validated measures and costs. Return on investment was calculated based on investment and cost savings. Costs include visits (clinic, specialty, and emergency room), hospital admissions, medications, tests and services, as well as salary and benefits of clinical staff. Eighty-six of 211 eligible patients (41%) were enrolled during the first 18 months of the pilot program. There were positive trends in quality metrics and patient satisfaction. The pre-post evaluation demonstrated a reduction in emergency room visits and hospitalizations (67% and 65%, respectively), which resulted in a 2.2:1 return on investment. This article offers lessons learned to colleagues considering population health approaches in the care of high-risk Medicaid patients.

Teaching Integrative Medicine to Residents: A Focus on Populations Rather Than Individual Patients.

INTRODUCTION: Integrative medicine (IM) is by its very definition patient centric: "It reaffirms the importance of the relationship between practitioner and patient, focuses on the whole person, is informed by evidence, and makes use of all appropriate therapeutic approaches." Best methods for teaching IM in residency have not been well described. METHODS: An IM curriculum for preventive medicine (PM) residents was thoughtfully developed and iteratively revised using Kern's six-step approach. The centerpiece of this curriculum was to have learners work collaboratively within teams on projects that would facilitate IM-focused care within primary care practices. Before embarking on specific IM-related projects, residents immersed themselves within the practices to understand the needs of the community. RESULTS: Forty-eight PM residents have participated in the curriculum in the last 3 years, and 27 unique physician preceptors served as mentors for the projects. Both residents and preceptors enjoyed working on the projects, and both groups considered the work to be a valuable educational pursuit. Common IM content areas covered by the projects dealt with interprofessional collaboration, health promotion, and population-based prevention. Although there were challenges associated with implementation of the projects, overcoming these enhanced the PM residents' confidence and ability to serve as agents of change. CONCLUSIONS: An IM curriculum was successfully incorporated into a PM residency program. The focus on serving the community, or a population health approach, may not be the most common approach in IM, but it worked effectively to enhance the IM knowledge and skills of PM residents.

Perceptions of health system orientation: quality, patient centeredness, and cultural competency.

As part of a pragmatic trial to reduce hypertension disparities, we conducted a baseline organizational assessment to identify aspects of organizational functioning that could affect the success of our interventions. Through qualitative interviewing and the administration of two surveys, we gathered data about health care personnel's perceptions of their organization's orientations toward quality, patient centeredness, and cultural competency. We found that personnel perceived strong orientations toward quality and patient centeredness. The prevalence of these attitudes was significantly higher for these areas than for cultural competency and varied by occupational role and race. Larger percentages of survey respondents perceived barriers to addressing disparities than barriers to improving safety and quality. Health care managers and policy makers should consider how we have built strong quality orientations and apply those lessons to cultural competency.

Adherence and health care costs.

Medication nonadherence is an important public health consideration, affecting health outcomes and overall health care costs. This review considers the most recent developments in adherence research with a focus on the impact of medication adherence on health care costs in the US health system. We describe the magnitude of the nonadherence problem and related costs, with an extensive discussion of the mechanisms underlying the impact of nonadherence on costs. Specifically, we summarize the impact of nonadherence on health care costs in several chronic diseases, such as diabetes and asthma. A brief analysis of existing research study designs, along with suggestions for future research focus, is provided. Finally, given the ongoing changes in the US health care system, we also address some of the most relevant and current trends in health care, including pharmacist-led medication therapy management and electronic (e)-prescribing.

Patient safety perceptions of primary care providers after implementation of an electronic medical record system.

BACKGROUND: Increasing the use of electronic medical records (EMR) has been suggested as an important strategy for improving healthcare safety. OBJECTIVE: To sequentially measure, evaluate, and respond to safety culture and practice safety concerns following EMR implementation. DESIGN: Safety culture was assessed using a validated tool (Safety Attitudes Questionnaire; SAQ), immediately following EMR implementation (T1) and at 1.5 (T2) and 2.5 (T3) years post-implementation. The SAQ was supplemented with a practice-specific assessment tool to identify safety needs and barriers. PARTICIPANTS: A large medical group practice with a primary care core of 17-18 practices, staffed by clinicians in family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine. INTERVENTIONS: Survey results were used to define and respond to areas of need between assessments with system changes and educational programs. MAIN MEASURES: Change in safety culture over time; perceived impact of EMR on practice. KEY RESULTS: Responses were received from 103 of 123 primary care providers in T1 (83.7 % response rate), 122 of 143 in T2 (85.3 %) and 142 of 181 in T3 (78.5 %). Safety culture improved over this period, with statistically significant improvement in all domains except for stress recognition. Time constraints, communications and patient adherence were perceived to be the most important safety issues. The majority of respondents in both T2 (77.9 %) and T3 (85.4 %) surveys agreed that the EMR improved their ability to provide care more safely. CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of an EMR in a large primary care practice required redesign of many organizational processes, and was associated with improvements in safety culture. Most primary care providers agreed that the EMR allowed them to provide care more safely.

Design and implementation of a longitudinal ambulatory clerkship in the first-year curriculum at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

In response to calls for medical education reform we designed and implemented a new Longitudinal Ambulatory Clerkship (LAC) at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The LAC provides first-year medical students with their initial exposure to clinical medicine during a 12-month experience consisting of weekly clinic sessions with a practicing physician-mentor (preceptor) and longitudinal experience with a population of patients. The LAC allows students to experience firsthand many of the personal, professional, and organizational issues that impact the practice of medicine. This paper reviews the rationale, development, and challenges during implementation of this clerkship.