Automated System for Gathering and Reporting Clinical Outcomes to Providers

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Automated communication systems can help healthcare providers learn about their patients’ outcomes to detect patients who haven’t improved as expected. OBJECTIVE: To provide feedback to healthcare providers on patient outcomes following acute care visits. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study was conducted at two primary care clinics at Massachusetts General Hospital in which consenting patients received follow-up survey emails one and three weeks after acute care visits. In both surveys, patients were asked about the status of the problem for which they were seen and about subsequent provider contact. Patients’ responses were sent to their providers. Patients and providers were surveyed regarding satisfaction with the system. PRIMARY GOAL: To test the feasibility of implementing the system. Primary outcomes included: patient enrollment and response rate, problem resolution, and provider and patient satisfaction with the system. KEY RESULTS: Of 936 patients who had acute care visits during the study period, 326 (35%) agreed to participate in the study. One hundred forty-four patients responded to at least one of the two surveys they received (44% of participants, 15% of all patients who had urgent care visits). Twenty-two patients (15% of responders) reported lack of improvement in at least one of the surveys. The system informed providers of eight unimproved patients who had not contacted any provider since their visit. Seventy-seven percent of responding patients recommended that the clinic continue to send patients follow-up emails in the future. Ninety-seven percent of responding providers said they liked receiving the reports from our system. CONCLUSIONS: Gathering and reporting clinical outcomes to providers is feasible using an asynchronous and secure online survey system initiated via standard email. A system that requires minimal effort from clinic staff allows providers to detect and focus their attention on unimproved patients while improving overall patient satisfaction.