Browsing by Subject "Physician-Patient Relations"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Characteristics Associated with Confidential Consultation for Adolescents in Primary Care
    (Elsevier, 2018-08) Gilbert, Amy Lewis; McCord, Allison L.; Ouyang, Fangqian; Etter, Dillon J.; Williams, Rebekah L.; Hall, James A.; Tu, Wanzhu; Downs, Stephen M.; Aalsma, Matthew C.; Pediatrics, School of Medicine
    OBJECTIVE: To examine how provider report of confidential consultation in the electronic health record is associated with adolescent characteristics, health risk factors, and provider training. STUDY DESIGN: This prospective cohort study was conducted as part of a larger study implementing computerized clinical decision support in 2 urban primary care clinics. Adolescents used tablets to complete screening questions for specified risk factors in the waiting room. Adolescent-reported risk factors included sexual activity, substance use, and depressive symptoms. Providers were prompted on encounter forms to address identified risk factors and indicate whether confidential consultation was provided. Provider types included adolescent medicine board certified pediatrics and general pediatrics. Differences in proportions of adolescents reporting risk factors by provider type were assessed using χ2 tests. Associations between adolescent characteristics, risk factors, and provider-reported confidential consultation were examined using logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: The sample included 1233 English and Spanish-speaking adolescents 12-20 years of age (52% female; 60% black; 50% early adolescent). Patients seen by adolescent medicine board certified providers reported sexual activity, depressive symptoms, and substance use significantly more often than those seen by general pediatric providers. Among patients seen by board certified adolescent medicine providers, confidential consultation was provided to 90%. For those seen by general pediatric providers, confidential consultation was provided to 53%. Results of multiple logistic regression demonstrated that female sex, later adolescence, and clinic location were significantly associated with confidential consultation. CONCLUSIONS: Provider training is needed to reinforce the importance of confidential consultation for all adolescents.
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    Effect of an Educational Intervention on Medical Student Scripting and Patient Satisfaction: A Randomized Trial
    (eScholarship, 2018-05) Pettit, Katie E.; Turner, Joseph S.; Pollard, Katherine A.; Buente, Bryce B.; Humbert, Aloysius J.; Perkins, Anthony J.; Hobgood, Cherri D.; Kline, Jeffrey A.; Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine
    Introduction: Effective communication between clinicians and patients has been shown to improve patient outcomes, reduce malpractice liability, and is now being tied to reimbursement. Use of a communication strategy known as "scripting" has been suggested to improve patient satisfaction in multiple hospital settings, but the frequency with which medical students use this strategy and whether this affects patient perception of medical student care is unknown. Our objective was to measure the use of targeted communication skills after an educational intervention as well as to further clarify the relationship between communication element usage and patient satisfaction. Methods: Medical students were block randomized into the control or intervention group. Those in the intervention group received refresher training in scripted communication. Those in the control group received no instruction or other intervention related to communication. Use of six explicit communication behaviors were recorded by trained study observers: 1) acknowledging the patient by name, 2) introducing themselves as medical students, 3) explaining their role in the patient's care, 4) explaining the care plan, 5) providing an estimated duration of time to be spent in the emergency department (ED), and 6) notifying the patient that another provider would also be seeing them. Patients then completed a survey regarding their satisfaction with the medical student encounter. Results: We observed 474 medical student-patient encounters in the ED (231 in the control group and 243 in the intervention group). We were unable to detect a statistically significant difference in communication element use between the intervention and control groups. One of the communication elements, explaining steps in the care plan, was positively associated with patient perception of the medical student's overall communication skills. Otherwise, there was no statistically significant association between element use and patient satisfaction. Conclusion: We were unable to demonstrate any improvement in student use of communication elements or in patient satisfaction after refresher training in scripted communication. Furthermore, there was little variation in patient satisfaction based on the use of scripted communication elements. Effective communication with patients in the ED is complicated and requires further investigation on how to provide this skill set.
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    Giving patients granular control of personal health information: Using an ethics “Points to Consider” to inform informatics system designers
    (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2013.08.010, 2013-12) Meslin, Eric M.; Alpert, Sheri A.; Carroll, Aaron E.; Odell, Jere D.; Tierney, William M.; Schwartz, Peter H.
    OBJECTIVE: There are benefits and risks of giving patients more granular control of their personal health information in electronic health record (EHR) systems. When designing EHR systems and policies, informaticists and system developers must balance these benefits and risks. Ethical considerations should be an explicit part of this balancing. Our objective was to develop a structured ethics framework to accomplish this. METHODS: We reviewed existing literature on the ethical and policy issues, developed an ethics framework called a "Points to Consider" (P2C) document, and convened a national expert panel to review and critique the P2C. RESULTS: We developed the P2C to aid informaticists designing an advanced query tool for an electronic health record (EHR) system in Indianapolis. The P2C consists of six questions ("Points") that frame important ethical issues, apply accepted principles of bioethics and Fair Information Practices, comment on how questions might be answered, and address implications for patient care. DISCUSSION: The P2C is intended to clarify what is at stake when designers try to accommodate potentially competing ethical commitments and logistical realities. The P2C was developed to guide informaticists who were designing a query tool in an existing EHR that would permit patient granular control. While consideration of ethical issues is coming to the forefront of medical informatics design and development practices, more reflection is needed to facilitate optimal collaboration between designers and ethicists. This report contributes to that discussion.
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    An informatics approach to medication adherence assessment and improvement using clinical, billing, and patient-entered data
    (Oxford University Press, 2014-05) Dixon, Brian E.; Jabour, Abdulrahman M.; O’Kelly Phillips, Erin; Marrero, David G.; BioHealth Informatics, School of Informatics and Computing
    The aim of this study was to describe an integrated informatics approach to aggregating and displaying clinically relevant data that can identify problems with medication adherence and facilitate patient-provider communication about strategies to improve medication use. We developed a clinical dashboard within an electronic health record (EHR) system that uses data from three sources: the medical record, pharmacy claims, and a personal health record. The data are integrated to inform clinician-patient discussions about medication adherence. Whereas prior research on assessing patterns of medication adherence focused on a single approach using the EHR, pharmacy data, or patient-entered data, we present an approach that integrates multiple electronic data sources increasingly found in practice. Medication adherence is a complex challenge that requires patient and provider team input, necessitating an integrated approach using advanced EHR, clinical decision support, and patient-controlled technologies. Future research should focus on integrated strategies to provide patients and providers with the right combination of informatics tools to help them adequately address the challenge of adherence to complex medication therapies.
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    Obtaining History with a Language Barrier in the Emergency Department: Perhaps not a Barrier After All
    (eScholarship Publishing, 2018-11) Litzau, Megan; Turner, Joseph; Pettit, Katie; Morgan, Zachary; Cooper, Dylan; Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine
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    Patient Race/Ethnicity and Patient-Physician Race/Ethnicity Concordance in the Management of Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors for Patients With Diabetes
    (American Diabetes Association, 2010-03) Traylor, Ana H.; Subramanian, Usha; Uratsu, Connie S.; Mangione, Carol M.; Selby, Joe V.; Schmittdiel, Julie A.; Medicine, School of Medicine
    OBJECTIVE Patient-physician race/ethnicity concordance can improve care for minority patients. However, its effect on cardiovascular disease (CVD) care and prevention is unknown. We examined associations of patient race/ethnicity and patient-physician race/ethnicity concordance on CVD risk factor levels and appropriate modification of treatment in response to high risk factor values (treatment intensification) in a large cohort of diabetic patients. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The study population included 108,555 adult diabetic patients in Kaiser Permanente Northern California in 2005. Probit models assessed the effect of patient race/ethnicity on risk factor control and treatment intensification after adjusting for patient and physician-level characteristics. RESULTS African American patients were less likely than whites to have A1C <8.0% (64 vs. 69%, P < 0.0001), LDL cholesterol <100 mg/dl (40 vs. 47%, P < 0.0001), and systolic blood pressure (SBP) <140 mmHg (70 vs. 78%, P < 0.0001). Hispanic patients were less likely than whites to have A1C <8% (62 vs. 69%, P < 0.0001). African American patients were less likely than whites to have A1C treatment intensification (73 vs. 77%, P < 0.0001; odds ratio [OR] 0.8 [95% CI 0.7–0.9]) but more likely to receive treatment intensification for SBP (78 vs. 71%, P < 0.0001; 1.5 [1.3–1.7]). Hispanic patients were more likely to have LDL cholesterol treatment intensification (47 vs. 45%, P < 0.05; 1.1 [1.0–1.2]). Patient-physician race/ethnicity concordance was not significantly associated with risk factor control or treatment intensification. CONCLUSIONS Patient race/ethnicity is associated with risk factor control and treatment intensification, but patient-physician race/ethnicity concordance was not. Further research should investigate other potential drivers of disparities in CVD care.
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    Sexuality talk during adolescent health maintenance visits
    (AMA, 2014-02) Alexander, Stewart C.; Fortenberry, J. Dennis; Pollak, Kathryn I.; Bravender, Terrill; Davis, J. Kelly; Østbye, Truls; Tulsky, James A.; Dolor, Rowena J.; Shields, Cleveland G.; Department of Pediatrics, Indiana University School of Medicine
    IMPORTANCE: Physicians may be important sources of sexuality information and preventive services, and one-on-one confidential time during health maintenance visits is recommended to allow discussions of sexual development, behavior, and risk reduction. However, little is known about the occurrence and characteristics of physician-adolescent discussions about sexuality. OBJECTIVE: To examine predictors of time spent discussing sexuality, level of adolescent participation, and physician and patient characteristics associated with sexuality discussions during health maintenance visits by early and middle adolescents. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Observational study of audio-recorded conversations between 253 adolescents (mean age, 14.3 years; 53% female; 40% white; 47% African American) and 49 physicians (82% pediatricians; 84% white; 65% female; mean age, 40.9 years; mean [SD] duration in practice, 11.8 [8.7] years) coded for sexuality content at 11 clinics (3 academic and 8 community-based practices) located throughout the Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina, area. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Total time per visit during which sexuality issues were discussed. RESULTS One hundred sixty-five (65%) of all visits had some sexual content within it. The average time of sexuality talk was 36 seconds (35% 0 seconds; 30% 1-35 seconds; and 35% ≥ 36 seconds). Ordinal logistic regression (outcome of duration: 0, 1-35, or ≥ 36 seconds), adjusted for clustering of patients within physicians, found that female patients (odds ratio [OR] = 2.58; 95% CI, 1.53-4.36), older patients (OR = 1.37; 95% CI, 1.13-1.65), conversations with explicit confidentiality discussions (OR = 4.33; 95% CI, 2.58-7.28), African American adolescents (OR = 1.58; 95% CI, 1.01-2.48), and longer overall visit (OR = 1.07; 95% CI, 1.03-1.11) were associated with more sexuality talk, and Asian physicians were associated with less sexuality talk (OR = 0.13; 95% CI, 0.08-0.20). In addition, the same significant associations between adolescent, physician, and visit characteristics were significantly associated with greater adolescent participation. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Our study may be the first to directly observe sexuality talk between physicians and adolescents. We found that one-third of all adolescents had annual visits without any mention of sexuality issues; when sexuality talk occurred, it was brief. Research is needed to identify successful strategies physicians can use to engage adolescents in discussions about sexuality to help promote healthy sexual development and decision making. TRIAL REGISTRATION: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01040975.