Meaningful Engagement in Depression and Anxiety Collaborative Care: Associations With Systematic Case Review

Abstract

BackgroundCollaborative Care (CC) is an evidence-based model of care for treating behavioral health conditions in primary care settings. The Collaborative Care (CC) team consists of a primary care provider (PCP), behavioral health care manager (CM), and a consultant psychiatrist who collaborate to create treatment plans. To date, there is limited data on factors associated with meaningful engagement in CC programs. ObjectiveTo identify the proportion of patients who were meaningfully engaged and to investigate the factors associated with meaningful engagement in a CC program. MethodsData was collected from a CC program implemented across 27 adult primary care clinics in a Midwestern, U.S. academic medical system. Logistic regression (n=5218) was used to estimate the odds of receiving meaningful engagement. ResultsData was collected from 6,437 individuals with 68% being female and a mean age of 45 years old (SD 17.6). Overall, 57% of patients were meaningfully engaged, however, this proportion differed based on demographic and clinical factors. Among modifiable clinical factors, systematic case reviews between the CM and psychiatrist (OR: 10.2, 95% CI: 8.6-12.1) and warm handoffs (OR: 1.3, 95% CI: 1.1-1.5) were associated with higher likelihood of receiving meaningful engagement. ConclusionsThe presence of systematic case reviews between the behavioral health care manager and the consultant psychiatrist was highly associated with meaningful engagement. When implementing such programs, high fidelity to the core principles including regularly scheduled systematic case reviews should be pursued.