"They Ask Questions, But They Don't Want the Answers"-Perceptions of Clinical Communication Among Veterans Discontinuing Buprenorphine for the Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder.

BACKGROUND: Many patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) discontinue treatment prematurely, increasing their risk of opioid-related overdose and death. While patient-centered care is considered the gold standard in treating chronic illness, it may be practiced less frequently in the context of OUD care. Patient-provider communication can influence patients' care experiences, potentially having an impact on treatment retention and care decision-making. METHODS: This study was conducted at the VA Portland Health Care System from March 2021 to April 2022. We conducted qualitive interviews with patients who had discontinued buprenorphine for the treatment of OUD within the past year. Coding and analysis were guided by inductive qualitative content analysis. Retrospective medical record review identified clinical and demographic characteristics of participants. RESULTS: Twenty patients completed an interview. Participant age ranged from 28 to 74 years (median 63 years). Ninety percent of participants were white and 90% male. Many participants expressed frustration and feelings of disempowerment in OUD care processes. Patients with a history of long-term prescribed opioid use frequently expressed stigmatizing views of OUD, and perceptions of disagreement with providers over diagnosis and care choices. Elderly patients and those with multiple comorbidities expressed confusion over significant aspects of their care, as well as difficulty navigating treatment logistics like appointment requirements and medication dose changes. Some patients reported later restarting buprenorphine in new settings, and described feeling respected and involved in care decisions as a facilitator for continuing treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Prioritizing patient-centered communication in OUD treatment could improve the patient experience and potentially support treatment retention. Subgroups of OUD patients, such as those with a history of long-term prescribed opioid use, elderly patients with multiple comorbidities, or those who express stigmatizing medication views, could particularly benefit from tailored communication strategies that address their individual concerns.

Patients' Perspectives on Discontinuing Buprenorphine for the Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder.

OBJECTIVES: Buprenorphine and other medications for opioid use disorder (OUD) are recommended as standard of care in the treatment of OUD and are associated with positive health and addiction-related outcomes. Despite benefits, discontinuation is common, with half of patients discontinuing in the first year of treatment. Addressing OUD is a major clinical priority, yet little is known about the causes of medication discontinuation from the patient perspective. METHODS: From March 2021 to April 2022, we conducted qualitative interviews with patients who had discontinued buprenorphine for the treatment of OUD within the past 12 months. Eligible participants were selected from 2 Veterans Health Administration Health Care Systems in Oregon. Coding and analysis were guided by conventional qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: Twenty participants completed an interview; 90% were White and 90% were male, and the mean age was 54.2 years. Before discontinuation, participants had received buprenorphine for 8.3 months on average (range, 1-40 months); 80% had received buprenorphine for less than 12 months. Qualitative analysis identified the following themes relating to discontinuation: health system barriers (eg, logistical hurdles, rules and policy violations), medication effects (adverse effects; attributed adverse effects, lack of efficacy in treating chronic pain) and desire for opioid use. Patient description of decisions to discontinue buprenorphine could be multicausal, reflecting provider or system-level barriers in interaction with patient complexity or medication ambivalence. CONCLUSIONS: Study results identify several actionable ways OUD treatment could be modified to enhance patient retention.

Caregivers' Role in In-Home Video Telehealth: National Survey of Occupational Therapy Practitioners.

BACKGROUND: Older adults face barriers to specialty care, such as occupational therapy (OT), and these challenges are worse for rural older adults. While in-home video telehealth may increase access to OT, older adults' health- and technology-related challenges may necessitate caregiver assistance. OBJECTIVE: This study examines caregiver assistance with in-home OT video telehealth visits from the perspectives of OT practitioners at Veterans Health Administration (VHA). METHODS: A web-based national survey of VHA OT practitioners about caregivers' role in video telehealth was conducted between January and February 2022. Survey items were developed with input from subject matter experts in geriatrics and OT and identified patient factors that necessitate caregiver participation; the extent to which caregivers assist with different types of tasks (technological and clinical tasks); and the perceived facilitators of, benefits of, and barriers to caregiver involvement. RESULTS: Of approximately 1787 eligible VHA OT practitioners, 286 (16% response rate) participated. Not all survey items required completion, resulting in different denominators. Most respondents were female (183/226, 81%), White (163/225, 72.4%), and occupational therapists (275/286, 96.2%). Respondents were from 87 VHA medical centers, the catchment areas of which served a patient population that was 34% rural, on average (SD 0.22). Most participants (162/232, 69.8%) had >10 years of OT experience serving a patient cohort mostly aged ≥65 years (189/232, 81.5%) in primarily outpatient rehabilitation (132/232, 56.9%). The top patient factors necessitating caregiver involvement were lack of technical skills, cognitive impairment, and advanced patient age, with health-related impairments (eg, hearing or vision loss) less frequent. Technological tasks that caregivers most frequently assisted with were holding, angling, moving, repositioning, or operating the camera (136/250, 54.4%) and enabling and operating the microphone and setting the volume (126/248, 50.8%). Clinical tasks that caregivers most frequently assisted with were providing patient history (143/239, 59.8%) and assisting with patient communication (124/240, 51.7%). The top facilitator of caregiver participation was clinician-delivered caregiver education about what to expect from video telehealth (152/275, 55.3%), whereas the top barrier was poor connectivity (80/235, 34%). Increased access to video telehealth (212/235, 90.2%) was the top-rated benefit of caregiver participation. Most respondents (164/232, 70.7%) indicated that caregivers were at least sometimes unavailable or unable to assist with video telehealth, in which case the appointment often shifted to phone. CONCLUSIONS: Caregivers routinely assist VHA patients with in-home OT video visits, which is invaluable to patients who are older and have complex medical needs. Barriers to caregiver involvement include caregivers' challenges with video telehealth or inability to assist, or lack of available caregivers. By elucidating the caregiver support role in video visits, this study provides clinicians with strategies to effectively partner with caregivers to enhance older patients' access to video visits.

Caregiver Support Role in Occupational Therapy Video Telehealth: A Scoping Review.

Caregiver involvement may facilitate patient participation in occupational therapy (OT) video telehealth. However, little is known about the extent to which caregivers participate and what they do. This scoping review aims to, 1) describe the caregiver role supporting patient participation in OT video telehealth, and, 2) identify barriers and facilitators to caregiver involvement. Findings reveal caregiver involvement in a range of OT evaluation and intervention processes, with details on what caregivers did overall lacking. Barriers and facilitators are also described. This study underscores the need for clear and robust descriptions of caregiver participation to increase best practices in video telehealth.

Understanding care coordination for Veterans with complex care needs: protocol of a multiple-methods study to build evidence for an effectiveness and implementation study.

Background: For patients with complex health and social needs, care coordination is crucial for improving their access to care, clinical outcomes, care experiences, and controlling their healthcare costs. However, evidence is inconsistent regarding the core elements of care coordination interventions, and lack of standardized processes for assessing patients' needs has made it challenging for providers to optimize care coordination based on patient needs and preferences. Further, ensuring providers have reliable and timely means of communicating about care plans, patients' full spectrum of needs, and transitions in care is important for overcoming potential care fragmentation. In the Veterans Health Administration (VA), several initiatives are underway to implement care coordination processes and services. In this paper, we describe our study underway in the VA aimed at building evidence for designing and implementing care coordination practices that enhance care integration and improve health and care outcomes for Veterans with complex care needs. Methods: In a prospective observational multiple methods study, for Aim 1 we will use existing data to identify Veterans with complex care needs who have and have not received care coordination services. We will examine the relationship between receipt of care coordination services and their health outcomes. In Aim 2, we will adapt the Patient Perceptions of Integrated Veteran Care questionnaire to survey a sample of Veterans about their experiences regarding coordination, integration, and the extent to which their care needs are being met. For Aim 3, we will interview providers and care teams about their perceptions of the innovation attributes of current care coordination needs assessment tools and processes, including their improvement over other approaches (relative advantage), fit with current practices (compatibility and innovation fit), complexity, and ability to visualize how the steps proceed to impact the right care at the right time (observability). The provider interviews will inform design and deployment of a widescale provider survey. Discussion: Taken together, our study will inform development of an enhanced care coordination intervention that seeks to improve care and outcomes for Veterans with complex care needs.

Occupational Therapy Practitioner Perspectives of the Role of Caregivers in Video Telehealth.

The current article examines the role of caregivers to support patient participation in video telehealth, using data from interviews with occupational therapy practitioners at Veterans Health Administration. We found that caregiver participation allowed patients who might otherwise not be able to access video telehealth to do so, with patient factors, such as low technical literacy, contributing to caregiver involvement. In addition, caregiver participation varied by type of task performed. There were also benefits and barriers to caregiver participation. This study enhances our understanding of caregivers' role enabling patients to access video telehealth, which has implications for nursing professionals. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 48(10), 15-20.].