The increase in electronic health record adoption has led to a dramatic increase in the number of messages in patient-physician inboxes, a trend further amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This increase in digital communications has posed significant challenges for health systems, leading some to make changes to manage the growing clinical burden.
A recent study published in JAMA Network Open attempted to shed light on the complexity of electronic communication between patients and physicians in a large integrated health system.
Conducted at Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC), the study focused on understanding message content and variability to improve patient message handling efficiency. The research team analyzed more than 4 million patient messages exchanged between April and August 2023, which were then processed through KPNC’s Desktop Medicine Program, designed to streamline Route messages and optimize physician workflow.
The report revealed more than three-quarters (77%) of messages received at least one label, with popular categories including medications, skin conditions, messages with attachments and emerging content. Nearly a third of messages had multiple labels, demonstrating the complexity and variety of patient questions.
The study also highlighted significant variation in message categories, with some topics showing consistent patterns while others showed strong fluctuations. For example, controlled substances and medication-related messages showed low variability, while topics such as flu vaccines and COVID-19 vaccines showed high variability.
The report notes one aspect of the Desktop Medicine Program is real-time notification content analysis, which allows identification of urgent conditions and expedites review of the area. This proactive approach has helped shorten clinical assessment times for potentially urgent problems.
“The results show that a health system-wide approach to triaging patient messages combined with clearly defined regional workflows can improve timely responses,” the report notes. and significantly reduce physician inbox volumes.”
Despite the program’s success in addressing more than 1.5 million patient messages, the study acknowledged limitations, including its focus on a single health system and the exclusion of other models. newer languages.
The researchers note that future improvements are needed to address messages with multiple topics as well as improve content labeling and feedback.
BIGGER TREND
Health systems and care providers are looking at a variety of solutions to better manage clinical documentation and EHR integration as they combat burnout and address staff shortages . Earlier this month, Rush partnered with Suki AI, a developer of voice assistants for clinicians, to address physician burnout.
The health system is testing Suki’s platform across workflows across 30 specialties through a two-way integration with Epic, aiming to reduce time spent on clinical documentation by 72%.
Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins is leveraging AI in Epic chart summarization and has seen success with AI-powered patient portals, seeing promising results with ambient note-taking.
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Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS Media.
