Only 62% of referring PCPs received consultation results from specialists

Communication between primary care physicians (PCPs) and specialists regarding referrals and consultations is often inadequate, with negative consequences for patients.

A study found that perceptions of communication regarding referrals and consultations differed.

For example, 69% of PCPs reported "always" or "most of the time" sending notification of a patient's history and reason for consultation to specialists, but only 34.8% of specialists said they "always" or "most of the time" received such notification.

Similarly, 80.6% of specialists said they "always" or "most of the time" send consultation results to the referring PCP, but only 62% of PCPs said they received such information.

The 3 practice characteristics associated with PCPs and specialists reporting good communication regarding referrals and consultations were:

- "adequate" visit time with patients

- receipt of quality reports regarding patients with chronic conditions

- nurse support for monitoring patients with chronic conditions

Twitter comments:

@westr: Case for EHRs...

@Kind4Kids: but then the inpatient and outpatient EHR need to "communicate".

@GruntDoc: 0% of ED docs... -- Only 62% of referring PCPs received consultation results from specialists

References:

Referral and Consultation Communication Between Primary Care and Specialist Physicians. Arch Intern Med. 2011;171(1):56-65. doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2010.480

Secure web messaging between patients and doctors: Not well received

Although e-mail may be an efficient clinician-patient communication tool, standard e-mail is not adequately secure to meet Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) guidelines. For this reason, firewall-secured electronic messaging systems have been developed for use in health care.

The Kryptiq messaging system was implemented at an academic center and messages were monitored continuously and tracked.

In the 8 months after implementation, only 5 messages were initiated by patients in contrast to 2,363 phone calls.

Patients/families expressed strong interest in e-mailing but secure Web messaging was:

- less convenient than using the phone

- too technically cumbersome

- lacked a personal touch

- only by a handful of patients

One pediatrician on Twitter wants a simpler solution:

@Doctor_V (Bryan Vartabedian): Gimme an integrated, secure Tw like tool for doc to doc/pt comm - part of record.

Comments from Twitter:

@davisliumd: No, Kaiser's data different: Use of Health Information Technology Leads to Improved Care Quality

@yejnes: My patients like it!

References:

Secure Web Messaging in a Pediatric Chronic Care Clinic: A Slow Takeoff of "Kids' Airmail". PEDIATRICS Vol. 127 No. 2 February 2011, pp. e406-e413 (doi:10.1542/peds.2010-1086)

Medical practices using email with patients see their voicemail volume drop - email replaces inefficient phone tag. "We in health care can no longer sit back and say, "I don't do email with patients" - a doctor in WSJ, 2012.

Image source: Wikipedia, public domain.