Road to Better Work-Life Balance? Lean Redesigns and Daily Work Time among Primary Care Physicians.

PURPOSE: To assess the impact of Lean primary care redesigns on the amount of time that physicians spent working each day. METHODS: This observational study was based on 92 million time-stamped Epic® EHR access logs captured among 317 primary care physicians in a large ambulatory care delivery system. Seventeen clinic facilities housing 46 primary care departments were included for study. We conducted interrupted time series analysis to monitor changes in physician work patterns over 6 years. Key measures included total daily work time; time spent on "desktop medicine" outside the exam room; time spent with patients during office visits; time still working after clinic, i.e., after seeing the last patient each day; and remote work time. RESULTS: The amount of time that physicians spent on desktop EHR activities throughout the day, including after clinic hours, decreased by 10.9% (95% CI: -22.2, -2.03) and 8.3% (95% CI: -13.8, -2.12), respectively, during the first year of Lean implementation. Total daily work hours among physicians, which included both desktop activity and time in office visits, decreased by 20% (95% CI: -29.2, -9.60) by the third year of Lean implementation. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that Lean redesign may be associated with time savings for primary care physicians. However, since this was an observational analysis, further study is warranted (e.g., randomized trial) -to determine the impact of Lean interventions on physician work experiences.

Implementing team-based newborn well care: Perspectives of nurses and physicians.

PURPOSE: Pediatric primary care redesign includes changes to clinical teams and clinical workflows. This study described the perspectives of pediatric clinicians on their experience with redesign. DESIGN AND METHODS: This qualitative study explored clinician perspectives on a newborn care redesign pilot at a pediatric primary care site. Newborn Hallway (NBH), implemented in 2019, clustered morning newborn visits with a single physician, increased RN staffing, and provided newborn-specific training for RNs. NBH also revised visit documentation templates to promote communication between RNs and physicians and shared completion of history taking and education. We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with clinicians. The interview guide was developed using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research. Interviews were recorded and transcribed, and coded using an integrated approach. RESULTS: We interviewed 17 staff (8 physicians, 8 RNs, 1 nurse practitioner) from 3/2020 to 1/2021. Clinicians reported that NBH implementation was facilitated by widespread agreement on baseline challenges to newborn care, and interest in optimizing roles for RNs. Clinicians believed NBH facilitated teamwork, which mitigated unpredictability in newborn needs and arrival times, and improved staff satisfaction. Perceived barriers to NBH included staffing constraints and ambivalence about whether sharing tasks with RNs would negatively influence patient relationships and continuity. CONCLUSIONS: Pediatric primary care redesign focused on sharing tasks between RNs and physicians can promote teamwork and address unpredictability in clinical settings. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Resolving questions about how redesign influences patient continuity and trust, and clarifying optimal staffing may help facilitate adoption of clinical team and workflow innovations.

Implementing Lean Quality Improvement in Primary Care: Impact on Efficiency in Performing Common Clinical Tasks.

BACKGROUND: Many primary care practices have adopted Lean techniques to reduce the amount of time spent completing routine tasks. Few studies have evaluated both immediate and sustained impacts of Lean to improve this aspect of primary care work efficiency. OBJECTIVE: To examine 3-year impacts of Lean implementation on the amount of time taken for physicians to complete common clinical tasks. DESIGN: Non-randomized stepped wedge with segmented regression and interrupted time series analysis (January 2011-December 2016). PARTICIPANTS: A total of 317 physician-led teams in 46 primary care departments in a large ambulatory care delivery system. INTERVENTION: Lean redesign was initiated in one pilot site followed by system-wide spread across all primary care departments. Redesigns included standardization of exam room equipment and supplies, streamlining of call management processes, care team co-location, and team management of the electronic inbox. MEASURES: Time-stamped EHR tracking of physicians' completion time for 4 common tasks: (1) office visit documentation and closure of patient charts; (2) telephone call resolution; (3) prescription refill renewal; and (4) response to electronic patient messages. RESULTS: After Lean implementation, we found decreases in the amount of time to complete: office visit documentation (- 29.2% [95% CI: - 44.2, - 10.1]), telephone resolution (- 22.2% [95% CI: - 38.1, - 2.27]), and renewal of prescription refills (- 2.96% per month [95% CI: - 4.21, - 1.78]). These decreases were sustained over several years. Response time to electronic patient messages did not change significantly. CONCLUSIONS: Lean redesigns led to improvements in timely completion of 3 out of 4 common clinical tasks. Our findings support the use of Lean techniques to engage teams in routine aspects of patient care. More research is warranted to understand the mechanisms by which Lean promotes quality improvement and effectiveness of care team workflows.

Care Practices to Promote Patient Engagement in VA Primary Care: Factors Associated With High Performance.

PURPOSE: Patient engagement has been broadly defined as the process of actively involving and supporting patients in health care and treatment decision making. The aim of this study was to identify organizational factors that are associated with greater use of patient engagement care practices in Veterans Health Administration primary care clinics. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of data from the 2016 Patient-Aligned Care Team (PACT) national survey of direct care clinicians (primary care clinicians, registered nurses, and clinical associates). Exploratory factor analysis was used to group conceptually related patient engagement survey items into 3 subscales: planning and goal setting; motivational interviewing; and organizational strategies to promote self-management. Our independent variables included literature-based factors reported to promote team-based care and interdisciplinary collaboration in primary care. We used generalized estimating equations with multivariate logistic regression analysis to identify independent correlates of high performance on each patient engagement domain (top 25th vs bottom 25th percentile). RESULTS: A total of 2,478 direct care clinicians from 609 clinics completed all patient engagement items in the PACT survey. For all patient engagement sub-scales, respondents at high-performing clinics were more likely to report having regular team meetings to discuss performance improvement and having leadership responsible for implementing PACT. For 2 of 3 patient engagement subscales, high performance was also associated with having fully staffed PACT teams (≥3 team members per primary care clinician) and role clarity. CONCLUSIONS: Several desirable organizational and contextual factors were associated with high performance of patient engagement care practices. Strategies to improve the organizational functioning of primary care teams may enhance patient engagement in care.

Evidence and Implications Behind a National Decline in Primary Care Visits.

Primary care is the foundation of the health care system and the basis for new payment and delivery reforms in the USA. Yet since 2008, primary care visit rates dropped by 6-25% across a range of populations in five sources of national survey and administrative data. We hypothesize three likely mechanisms behind the decline: decreases in patients' ability, need, or desire to seek primary care; changes in primary care practice such as greater use of teams and non-face-to-face care; and replacement of in-person primary care visits with alternatives such as specialist, retail clinic, and commercial telemedicine visits. These mechanisms require further investigation. In the meantime, the trend prompts us to optimize the primary care visit and embrace the growth of alternatives while preserving the fundamental benefits of primary care.

Primary Care: the New Frontier for Reducing Readmissions.

To date, efforts to reduce hospital readmissions have centered largely on hospitals. In a recently published environmental scan, we examined the literature focusing on primary care-based efforts to reduce readmissions. While rigorous studies on interventions arising from primary care are limited, we found that multi-component care transitions programs that are initiated early in the hospitalization and are part of broader primary care practice transformation appear most promising. However, policy changes are necessary to spur innovation and support effective primary care-led transitions interventions. Though more rigorous research is needed, our findings suggest that primary care can and should lead future efforts for reducing hospital readmissions.

High-Need Patients' Goals and Goal Progress in a Veterans Affairs Intensive Outpatient Care Program.

BACKGROUND: Healthcare systems nationwide are implementing intensive outpatient care programs to optimize care for high-need patients; however, little is known about these patients' personal goals and factors associated with goal progress. OBJECTIVE: To describe high-need patients' goals, and to identify factors associated with their goal progress DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study PARTICIPANTS: A total of 113 high-need patients participated in a single-site Veterans Affairs intensive outpatient care program. MAIN MEASURES: Two independent reviewers examined patients' goals recorded in the electronic health record, categorized each goal into one of three domains (medical, behavioral, or social), and determined whether patients attained goal progress during program participation. Logistic regression was used to determine factors associated with goal progress. RESULTS: The majority (n = 72, 64%) of the 113 patients attained goal progress. Among the 100 (88%) patients with at least one identified goal, 58 set goal(s) in the medical domain; 60 in the behavioral domain; and 52 in the social domain. Within each respective domain, 41 (71%) attained medical goal progress; 34 (57%) attained behavioral goal progress; and 32 (62%) attained social goal progress. Patients with mental health condition(s) (aOR 0.3; 95% CI 0.1-0.9; p = 0.03) and those living alone (aOR 0.4; 95% CI 0.1-1.0; p = 0.05) were less likely to attain goal progress. Those with mental health condition(s) and those who were living alone were least likely to attain goal progress (interaction aOR 0.1 compared to those with neither characteristic; 95% CI 0.0-0.7; p = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: Among high-need patients participating in an intensive outpatient care program, patient goals were fairly evenly distributed across medical, behavioral, and social domains. Notably, individuals living alone with mental health conditions were least likely to attain progress. Future care coordination interventions might incorporate strategies to address this gap, e.g., broader integration of behavioral and social service components.

"It's Like Riding Out the Chaos": Caring for Socially Complex Patients in an Ambulatory Intensive Care Unit (A-ICU).

PURPOSE: High-need high-cost (HNHC) patients consume a large proportion of health resources but often receive suboptimal care in traditional primary care. Intensive ambulatory care interventions attempt to better meet these patients' needs, but we know little about how teams delivering these interventions in clinics serving socially complex patient populations perceive their work. METHODS: We performed a qualitative study of multidisciplinary staff experiences at a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) caring for predominantly homeless HNHC patients in the context of an ongoing implementation of an ambulatory intensive care unit (A-ICU) intervention. We conducted semistructured interviews with 9 ambulatory intensive care team members and 6 "usual care" members. We conducted a thematic analysis, using an inductive approach, at a semantic level. RESULTS: Staff viewed complexity as a combination of social, behavioral, and medical challenges that lead to patient-health care system mismatch. Staff perceive the following as key ingredients in caring for HNHC patients: addressing both psychosocial and clinical needs together; persistence in staying connected to patients through chaotic periods; shared commitment and cohesion among interdisciplinary team members; and flexibility to tailor care to patients' individual situations. Participants' definitions of success focused more on improving patient engagement than reducing utilization or cost. CONCLUSION: FQHC staff working with HNHC patients perceive mismatch between the health care system and patients' clinical and social needs as the key driver of poor outcomes for these patients. Intensive ambulatory care teams may bridge mismatch through provision of psychosocial supports, flexible care delivery, and fostering team cohesion to support patient engagement.

Striving toward team-based continuity: provision of same-day access and continuity in academic primary care clinics.

BACKGROUND: An important goal of the patient-centered medical home is increasing timely access for urgent needs, while maintaining continuity. In academic primary care clinics, meeting this goal, along with training medical residents and associated professionals, is challenging. METHODS: The aim of this study was to understand how academic primary care clinics provide continuity to patients requesting same-day access and identify factors that may affect site-level success. We conducted qualitative interviews from December 2013-October 2014 with primary care leadership involved with residency programs at 19 Veterans Health Administration academically-affiliated medical centers. Interview recordings were transcribed verbatim. To analyze the data, we created comprehensive, structured transcript summaries for each site. Site summaries were then entered into NVivo 10 software and coded by main categories to facilitate within-case and cross-case analyses. Themes and patterns across sites were identified using matrix analysis. RESULTS: Interviewees found it challenging to provide continuity for same-day in-person visits. Most sites took a team-based approach to ensure continuity and provide coverage for same-day access, notably using NPs, PAs, and RNs in their coverage algorithms. Further, they reported several adaptations that increased multiple types of continuity for walk-in patients, urgent care between in-person visits, and follow-up care. While this study focused on longitudinal continuity, both by individual PCPs or by a team of professionals, informational continuity and continuity of supervision, as well as, to a lesser extent, relational and management continuity, were also addressed in our interviews. Finally, most interviewees reported clinic intention to provide patient-centered, team-based care and a robust educational experience for trainees, and endeavored to structure their clinics in ways that align these two missions. CONCLUSIONS: In contending with the tension between providing continuity and educating new clinicians, clinics have re-conceptualized continuity as team-based, creating alternative strategies to same-day visits with a usual provider, coupled with communication strategies. Understanding the effect of these strategies on different types of continuity as well as patient experience and outcomes are key next steps in the further development and dissemination of effective models for improving continuity and the transition to team-based care in the academic clinic setting.

Implementing team-based primary care models: a mixed-methods comparative case study in a large, integrated health care system.

BACKGROUND: Successful implementation of new care models within a health system is likely dependent on contextual factors at the individual sites of care. OBJECTIVE: To identify practice setting components contributing to uptake of new team-based care models. DESIGN: Convergent mixed-methods design. PARTICIPANTS: Employees and patients of primary care practices implementing two team-based models in a large, integrated health system. MAIN MEASURES: Field observations of 9 practices and 75 interviews, provider and staff surveys to assess adaptive reserve and burnout, analysis of quality metrics, and patient panel comorbidity scores. The data were collected simultaneously, then merged, thematically analyzed, and interpreted by a multidisciplinary team. KEY RESULTS: Based on analysis of observations and interviews, the 9 practices were categorized into 3 groups-high, partial, and low uptake of new team-based models. Uptake was related to (1) practices' responsiveness to change and (2) flexible workflow as related to team roles. Strength of local leadership and stable staffing mediated practices' ability to achieve high performance in these two domains. Higher performance on several quality metrics was associated with high uptake practices compared to the lower uptake groups. Mean Adaptive Reserve Measure and Maslach Burnout Inventory scores did not differ significantly between higher and lower uptake practices. CONCLUSION: Uptake of new team-based care delivery models is related to practices' ability to respond to change and to adapt team roles in workflow, influenced by both local leadership and stable staffing. Better performance on quality metrics may identify high uptake practices. Our findings can inform expectations for operational and policy leaders seeking to implement change in primary care practices.

Characteristics of Patient-Centered Medical Home Initiatives that Generated Savings for Medicare: a Qualitative Multi-Case Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Through the Multi-Payer Advanced Primary Care Practice (MAPCP) Demonstration, Medicare, Medicaid, and private payers offered supplemental payments to 849 primary care practices that became patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs) in eight states; practices also received technical assistance and data reports. Average Medicare payments were capped at $10 per beneficiary per month in each state. OBJECTIVE: Since there was variation in the eight participating states' demonstration designs, experiences, and outcomes, we conducted a qualitative multi-case analysis to identify the key factors that differentiated states that were estimated to have generated net savings for Medicare from states that did not. PARTICIPANTS: States' MAPCP Demonstration initiatives were comprehensively profiled in case studies based on secondary document review, three rounds of annual interviews with state staff, payers, practices, and other stakeholders, and other data sources. APPROACH: Case study findings were summarized in a case-ordered predictor-outcome matrix, which identified the presence or absence of key demonstration design features and experiences and arrayed states based on the amount of net savings or losses they generated for Medicare. We then used this matrix to identify initiative features that were present in at least three of the four states that generated net savings and absent from at least three of the four states that did not generate savings. RESULTS: A majority of the states that generated net savings: required practices to be recognized PCMHs to enter the demonstration, did not allow late entrants into the demonstration, used a consistent demonstration payment model across participating payers, and offered practices opportunities to earn performance bonuses. Practices in states that generated net savings also tended to report receiving the demonstration payments and bonuses they expected to receive, without any issues. CONCLUSIONS: Designers of future PCMH initiatives may increase their likelihood of generating net savings by incorporating the demonstration features we identified.

Primary Care Tasks Associated with Provider Burnout: Findings from a Veterans Health Administration Survey.

BACKGROUND: The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) is a primary care delivery model predicated on shared responsibility for patient care among members of an interprofessional team. Effective task sharing may reduce burnout among primary care providers (PCPs). However, little is known about the extent to which PCPs share these responsibilities, and which, if any, of the primary care tasks performed independently by the PCPs (vs. shared with the team) are particularly associated with PCP burnout. A better understanding of the relationship between these tasks and their effects on PCP burnout may help guide focused efforts aimed at reducing burnout. OBJECTIVE: To investigate (1) the extent to which PCPs share responsibility for 14 discrete primary care tasks with other team members, and (2) which, if any, of the primary care tasks performed by the PCPs (without reliance on team members) are associated with PCP burnout. DESIGN: Secondary data analysis of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) survey data from two time periods. PARTICIPANTS: 327 providers from 23 VA primary care practices within one VHA regional network. MAIN MEASURES: The dependent variable was PCP report of burnout. Independent variables included PCP report of the extent to which they performed 14 discrete primary care tasks without reliance on team members; team functioning; and PCP-, clinic-, and system-level variables. KEY RESULTS: In adjusted models, PCP reports of intervening on patient lifestyle factors and educating patients about disease-specific self-care activities, without reliance on their teams, were significantly associated with burnout (intervening on lifestyle: b = 4.11, 95% CI = 0.39, 7.83, p = 0.03; educating patients: b = 3.83, 95% CI = 0.33, 7.32, p = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: Performing behavioral counseling and self-management education tasks without relying on other team members for assistance was associated with PCP burnout. Expanding the roles of nurses and other healthcare professionals to assume responsibility for these tasks may ease PCP burden and reduce burnout.

Closing the Referral Loop: an Analysis of Primary Care Referrals to Specialists in a Large Health System.

PURPOSE: Ideally, a referral from a primary care physician (PCP) to a specialist results in a completed specialty appointment with results available to the PCP. This is defined as "closing the referral loop." As health systems grow more complex, regulatory bodies increase vigilance, and reimbursement shifts towards value, closing the referral loop becomes a patient safety, regulatory, and financial imperative. OBJECTIVE/DESIGN: To assess the ability of a large health system to close the referral loop, we used electronic medical record (EMR)-generated data to analyze referrals from a large primary care network to 20 high-volume specialties between July 1, 2015 and June 30, 2016. MAIN MEASURES: The primary metric was documented specialist appointment completion rate. Explanatory analyses included documented appointment scheduling rate, individual clinic differences, appointment wait times, and geographic distance to appointments. KEY RESULTS: Of the 103,737 analyzed referral scheduling attempts, only 36,072 (34.8%) resulted in documented complete appointments. Low documented appointment scheduling rates (38.9% of scheduling attempts lacked appointment dates), individual clinic differences in closing the referral loop, and significant differences in wait times and distances to specialists between complete and incomplete appointments drove this gap. Other notable findings include high variation in wait times among specialties and correlation between high wait times and low documented appointment completion rates. CONCLUSIONS: The rate of closing the referral loop in this health system is low. Low appointment scheduling rates, individual clinic differences, and patient access issues of wait times and geographic proximity explain much of the gap. This problem is likely common among large health systems with complex provider networks and referral scheduling. Strategies that improve scheduling, decrease variation among clinics, and improve patient access will likely improve rates of closing the referral loop. More research is necessary to determine the impact of these changes and other potential driving factors.

Impact of Medical Scribes on Physician and Patient Satisfaction in Primary Care.

BACKGROUND: Use of electronic health records (EHRs) is associated with physician stress and burnout. While emergency departments and subspecialists have used scribes to address this issue, little is known about the impact of scribes in academic primary care. OBJECTIVE: Assess the impact of a scribe on physician and patient satisfaction at an academic general internal medicine (GIM) clinic. DESIGN: Prospective, pre-post-pilot study. During the 3-month pilot, physicians had clinic sessions with and without a scribe. We assessed changes in (1) physician workplace satisfaction and burnout, (2) time spent on EHR documentation, and (3) patient satisfaction. PARTICIPANTS: Six GIM faculty and a convenience sample of their patients (N = 325) at an academic GIM clinic. MAIN MEASURES: A 21-item pre- and 44-item post-pilot survey assessed physician workplace satisfaction and burnout. Physicians used logs to record time spent on EHR documentation outside of clinic hours. A 27-item post-visit survey assessed patient satisfaction during visits with and without the scribe. KEY RESULTS: Of six physicians, 100% were satisfied with clinic workflow post-pilot (vs. 33% pre-pilot), and 83% were satisfied with EHR use post-pilot (vs. 17% pre-pilot). Physician burnout was low at baseline and did not change post-pilot. Mean time spent on post-clinic EHR documentation decreased from 1.65 to 0.76 h per clinic session (p = 0.02). Patient satisfaction was not different between patients who had clinic visits with vs. without scribe overall or by age, gender, and race. Compared to patients 65 years or older, younger patients were more likely to report that the physician was more attentive and provided more education during visits with the scribe present (p = 0.03 and 0.02, respectively). Male patients were more likely to report that they disliked having a scribe (p = 0.03). CONCLUSION: In an academic GIM setting, employment of a scribe was associated with improved physician satisfaction without compromising patient satisfaction.

Experiences of primary care physicians and staff following lean workflow redesign.

BACKGROUND: In response to growing pressures on primary care, leaders have introduced a wide range of workforce and practice innovations, including team redesigns that delegate some physician tasks to nonphysicians. One important question is how such innovations affect care team members, particularly in view of growing dissatisfaction and burnout among healthcare professionals. We examine the work experiences of primary care physicians and staff after implementing Lean-based workflow redesigns. This included co-locating physician and medical assistant dyads, delegating significant responsibilities to nonphysician staff, and mandating greater coordination and communication among all care team members. METHODS: The redesigns were implemented and scaled in three phases across 46 primary care departments in a large ambulatory care delivery system. We fielded 1164 baseline and 1333 follow-up surveys to physicians and other nonphysician staff (average 73% response rate) to assess workforce engagement (e.g., job satisfaction, motivation), perceptions of the work environment, and job-related burnout. We conducted multivariate regressions to detect changes in experiences after the redesign, adjusting for respondent characteristics and clustering of within-clinic responses. RESULTS: We found that both physicians and nonphysician staff reported higher levels of engagement and teamwork after implementing redesigns. However, they also experienced higher levels of burnout and perceptions of the workplace as stressful. Trends were the same for both occupational groups, but the increased reports of stress were greater among physicians. Additionally, members of all clinics, except for the pilot site that developed the new workflows, reported higher burnout, while perceptions of workplace stress increased in all clinics after the redesign. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings partially align with expectations of work redesign as a route to improving physician and staff experiences in delivering care. Although teamwork and engagement increased, the redesigns in our study were not enough to moderate long-standing challenges facing primary care. Yet higher levels of empowerment and engagement, as observed in the pilot clinic, may be particularly effective in facilitating improvements while combating fatigue. To help practices cope with increasing burdens, interventions must directly benefit healthcare professionals without overtaxing an already overstretched workforce.

Defining Team Effort Involved in Patient Care from the Primary Care Physician's Perspective.

BACKGROUND: A better understanding of the attributes of patients who require more effort to manage may improve risk adjustment approaches and lead to more efficient resource allocation, improved patient care and health outcomes, and reduced burnout in primary care clinicians. OBJECTIVE: To identify and characterize high-effort patients from the physician's perspective. DESIGN: Cohort study. PARTICIPANTS: Ninety-nine primary care physicians in an academic primary care network. MAIN MEASURES: From a list of 100 randomly selected patients in their panels, PCPs identified patients who required a high level of team-based effort and patients they considered complex. For high-effort patients, PCPs indicated which factors influenced their decision: medical/care coordination, behavioral health, and/or socioeconomic factors. We examined differences in patient characteristics based on PCP-defined effort and complexity. KEY RESULTS: Among 9594 eligible patients, PCPs classified 2277 (23.7 %) as high-effort and 2676 (27.9 %) as complex. Behavioral health issues were the major driver of effort in younger patients, while medical/care coordination issues predominated in older patients. Compared to low-effort patients, high-effort patients were significantly (P < 0.01 for all) more likely to have higher rates of medical (e.g. 23.2 % vs. 6.3 % for diabetes) and behavioral health problems (e.g. 9.8 % vs. 2.9 % for substance use disorder), more frequent primary care visits (10.9 vs. 6.0 visits), and higher acute care utilization rates (25.8 % vs. 7.7 % for emergency department [ED] visits and 15.0 % vs. 3.9 % for hospitalization). Almost one in five (18 %) patients who were considered high-effort were not deemed complex by the same PCPs. CONCLUSIONS: Patients defined as high-effort by their primary care physicians, not all of whom were medically complex, appear to have a high burden of psychosocial issues that may not be accounted for in current chronic disease-focused risk adjustment approaches.

Effectiveness of Intensive Primary Care Interventions: A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: Multicomponent, interdisciplinary intensive primary care programs target complex patients with the goal of preventing hospitalizations, but programs vary, and their effectiveness is not clear. In this study, we systematically reviewed the impact of intensive primary care programs on all-cause mortality, hospitalization, and emergency department use. METHODS: We searched PubMed, CINAHL, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and the Cochrane Database of Reviews of Effects from inception to March 2017. Additional studies were identified from reference lists, hand searching, and consultation with content experts. We included systematic reviews, randomized controlled trials (RCTs), and observational studies of multicomponent, interdisciplinary intensive primary care programs targeting complex patients at high risk of hospitalization or death, with a comparison to usual primary care. Two investigators identified studies and abstracted data using a predefined protocol. Study quality was assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias tool. RESULTS: A total of 18 studies (379,745 participants) were included. Three major intensive primary care program types were identified: primary care replacement (home-based; three RCTs, one observational study, N = 367,681), primary care replacement (clinic-based; three RCTs, two observational studies, N = 9561), and primary care augmentation, in which an interdisciplinary team was added to existing primary care (five RCTs, three observational studies, N = 2503). Most studies showed no impact of intensive primary care on mortality or emergency department use, and the effectiveness in reducing hospitalizations varied. There were no adverse effects reported. DISCUSSION: Intensive primary care interventions demonstrated varying effectiveness in reducing hospitalizations, and there was limited evidence that these interventions were associated with changes in mortality. While interventions could be grouped into categories, there was still substantial overlap between intervention approaches. Further work is needed to identify program features that may be associated with improved outcomes.

Diabetes Care Management Teams Did Not Reduce Utilization When Compared With Traditional Care: A Randomized Cluster Trial.

PURPOSE: Health services research evaluates redesign models for primary care. Care management is one alternative. Evaluation includes resource utilization as a criterion. Compare the impact of care-manager teams on resource utilization. The comparison includes entire panes of patients and the subset of patients with diabetes. DESIGN: Randomized, prospective, cohort study comparing change in utilization rates between groups, pre- and post-intervention. METHODOLOGY: Ten primary care physician panels in a safety-net setting. Ten physicians were randomized to either a care-management approach (Group 1) or a traditional approach (Group 2). Care managers focused on diabetes and the cardiovascular cluster of diseases. Analysis compared rates of hospitalization, 30-day readmission, emergency room visits, and urgent care visits. Analysis compared baseline rates to annual rates after a yearlong run-in for entire panels and the subset of patients with diabetes. RESULTS: Resource utilization showed no statistically significant change between baseline and Year 3 (P=.79). Emergency room visits and hospital readmission increased for both groups (P=.90), while hospital admissions and urgent care visits decreased (P=.73). Similarly, utilization was not significantly different for patients with diabetes (P=.69). CONCLUSIONS: A care-management team approach failed to improve resource utilization rates by entire panels and the subset of diabetic patients compared to traditional care. This reinforces the need for further evidentiary support for the care-management model's hypothesis in the safety net.

The CareFirst Patient-Centered Medical Home Program: Cost and Utilization Effects in Its First Three Years.

BACKGROUND: Enhanced primary care models have diffused slowly and shown uneven results. Because their structural features are costly and challenging for small practices to implement, they offer modest rewards for improved performance, and improvement takes time. OBJECTIVE: To test whether a patient-centered medical home (PCMH) model that significantly rewarded cost savings and accommodated small primary care practices was associated with lower spending, fewer hospital admissions, and fewer emergency room visits. DESIGN: We compared medical care expenditures and utilization among adults who participated in the PCMH program to adults who did not participate. We computed difference-in-difference estimates using two-part multivariate generalized linear models for expenditures and negative binomial models for utilization. Control variables included patient demographics, county, chronic condition indicators, and illness severity. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 1,433,297 adults aged 18-64 years, residing in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, and insured by CareFirst for at least 3 consecutive months between 2010 and 2013. INTERVENTION: CareFirst implemented enhanced fee-for-service payments to the practices, offered a large retrospective bonus if annual cost and quality targets were exceeded, and provided information and care coordination support. MEASURES: Outcomes were quarterly claims expenditures per member for all covered services, inpatient care, emergency care, and prescription drugs, and quarterly inpatient admissions and emergency room visits. RESULTS: By the third intervention year, annual adjusted total claims payments were $109 per participating member (95 % CI: -$192, -$27), or 2.8 % lower than before the program and compared to those who did not participate. Forty-two percent of the overall decline in spending was explained by lower inpatient care, emergency care, and prescription drug spending. Much of the reduction in inpatient and emergency spending was explained by lower utilization of services. CONCLUSIONS: A PCMH model that does not require practices to make infrastructure investments and that rewards cost savings can reduce spending and utilization.

Physician, Scribe, and Patient Perspectives on Clinical Scribes in Primary Care.

BACKGROUND: Extending medical assistants and nursing roles to include in-visit documentation is a recent innovation in the age of electronic health records. Despite the use of these clinical scribes, little is known regarding interactions among and perspectives of the involved parties: physicians, clinical scribes, and patients. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this project is to describe perspectives of physicians, clinical scribes, and patients regarding clinical scribes in primary care. DESIGN: We used qualitative content analysis, using Interpretive Description of semi-structured audio-recorded in-person and telephone interviews. PARTICIPANTS: Participants included 18 physicians and 17 clinical scribes from six healthcare systems, and 36 patients from one healthcare system. KEY RESULTS: Despite physician concerns regarding terminology within notes, physicians, clinical scribes, and patients perceived more detailed notes because of real-time documentation by scribes. Most patients were comfortable with the scribe's presence and perceived increased attention from their physicians. Clinical scribes also performed more active roles during a patient visit, leading to formation of positive scribe-patient relationships. The resulting shift in workflow, however, led to stress. Our theoretical model for successful physician-scribe teams emphasizes the importance of interpersonal aspects such as communication, mutual respect, and adaptability, as well as system level support such as training and staffing. CONCLUSIONS: Both interpersonal fit between physician and scribe, and system level support including adequate training, transition time, and staffing support are necessary for successful use of clinical scribes. Future directions for research regarding clinical scribes include study of care continuity, scribe medical knowledge, and scribe burnout.