Consultation Length Research Articles

Building Moral Resiliency Through the Nurse Education and Support Team Initiative.

Findings from 3 nurse-led research studies conducted in a large pediatric institution resulted in a call to action to support intensive and progressive care nurses experiencing moral and ethical challenges. To evaluate the feasibility of and satisfaction with implementation of a Nurse Education and Support Team (NEST) coach role. An interdisciplinary work group identified solutions for just-in-time support, including a new NEST coach role. This role was implemented in January 2017 to provide peer-to-peer support for nurses. The NEST coaches provide coverage 5 days per week in 4 intensive care units and 1 progressive care unit. Feasibility of the role was evaluated by assessing the number, type, length, and outcome of NEST coach consultations. Staff satisfaction was evaluated 6 months and 1.5 years after implementation. A total of 6262 NEST coach consultations occurred across the units from January 2017 through November 2019. At both evaluation periods, more than 85% of respondents indicated that they were satisfied with their interactions with the NEST coach and nearly 80% indicated that they would seek consultation again. Pediatric intensive and progressive care nurses experience many challenges in their practice environments. The innovative NEST coach role enabled access to just-in-time support and guidance through morally and ethically challenging situations. As evidenced by the number of consultations and the positive staff response, intensive and progressive care nurses have embraced and integrated the NEST coach role into their culture and practice.

Towards OPtimising Care of Regionally-Based Cardiac Patients With a Telehealth Cardiology Pharmacist Clinic (TOPCare Cardiology)

Cardiovascular disease is a major burden on the health of Australians, and cardiac health disparities exist for those who live outside of metropolitan areas. Poor patient medication literacy was identified by cardiologists at a regional Victorian health service as a barrier to medication optimisation and a factor in inefficiency in their service. Studies in Australia and overseas have shown pharmacists involved in multi-disciplinary and pre-admission models result in more accurate medication histories, increased patient medication knowledge and lower medication related adverse events. This study introduced a telehealth cardiology pharmacist clinic, with the primary aim of reducing cardiologist time gathering medication information and secondary aims of investigating the patient and cardiologist experience. A cardiology pharmacist clinic was introduced where a pharmacist undertook a consultation with a patient in the days preceding their appointment with their cardiologist. The primary outcome of this study was to determine whether a cardiology pharmacist consultation undertakenprior to a cardiologist consultation reduces the time spent by the cardiologist gathering medication information. This was measured via direct observation of cardiologist consultations with and without a prior cardiology pharmacist clinic consultation. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed to assess differences in time spent gathering the patient's medication information by the cardiologist. The secondary outcomes included differences between: the total length of cardiologist consultations, the number of cardiologist appointments with a medication uncertainty, and attendance rates for cardiologist consultations with and without a prior cardiology pharmacist clinic consultation. Other secondary outcomes included a quantitative survey assessing patient satisfaction with the pharmacist consultation, satisfaction with telehealth, confidence in medication management. Finally, clinician perceptions of the value of the pharmacist consultation were explored via semi-structured interviews. The time spent gathering medication information immediately before, and during, the cardiologist appointment reduced from 4.66 minutes without a prior cardiology pharmacist clinic consultation to 0.66 minutes with a prior cardiology pharmacist clinic consultation (difference 4 min, 95% CI: 3.27-4.77 p≤001). There was a 4.1-minute reduction in the mean consultation length of the cardiologist appointment if a cardiology pharmacist clinic consultation occurred prior (95% CI: 1.9-6.3, p<0.001). There were zero medication uncertainties (0/44) in the cardiologist appointment when the patient had a cardiology pharmacist clinic consultation compared to 51% (22/43) when no cardiology pharmacist clinic consultation had occurred. Patients with a cardiology pharmacist clinic consultation had a 5% (17/340) 'did not attend' (DNA) rate for their next cardiologist appointment. Patients who did not have a cardiology pharmacist clinic consultation had a 24% (202/855) DNA rate to their next cardiologist appointment. There was 100% patient satisfaction with the consultation provided by the cardiology pharmacist (100/100) and telehealth was considered an acceptable mode of delivery by 99% (95/96) of patients. Patients expressed an increase in their confidence to discuss their medications with their cardiologist (84% [81/96]). Benefits described by the clinicians whose patients received the service were greater confidence and ability to make treatment decisions within consultations, as well as improved patient health literacy. A cardiology pharmacist consultation undertaken prior to a cardiologist consultation reduced the time spent by the cardiologist gathering medication information. Importantly, it reduced medication uncertainty in cardiologist consultations which clinicians indicated provided them with greater confidence and ability to make treatment decisions within consultations. Patients who undertook a cardiology pharmacist clinic consultation were more likely to attend their cardiologist consultation, reducing wasted appointments. Patients were highly satisfied with the cardiology pharmacist consultation and considered telehealth an acceptable mode of delivery.

Patient Satisfaction With the Quality of Counseling Provided by Advanced Practice Nurses Specialized in Multiple Sclerosis: A Quantitative Analysis.

BACKGROUND: The challenges in dealing with multiple sclerosis (MS) have increased considerably in recent years. In addition to neurologists, MS nurse specialists are key to the management of MS patients, but there is a lack of evidence regarding their quality of counseling. METHODS: The data collection took place between October 2018 and March 2019 in the outpatient clinic of a university hospital. The quality of counseling was assessed using the APN-BQ, an instrument that contains 19 items that can be assigned to 4 dimensions. Participants were asked to rate their satisfaction on a scale from 0 to 3. General satisfaction was assessed on a scale from 0 to 100. RESULTS: The participants (n = 110) rated the quality of counseling and their general satisfaction high. The mean (SD) of the structure quality dimension was 2.64 (0.44), and satisfaction with length and frequency of consultations (2.53 [0.63]) scored better than outcome quality (1.99 [0.62]) and process quality (2.13 [0.60]). CONCLUSION: Overall, there was a high rate of satisfaction with the quality of counseling. In addition to the length and frequency of consultations, MS patients particularly appreciated the availability and expertise of MS nurse specialists.

The inverse care law and the potential of primary care in deprived areas

The inverse care law, whereby health care favours more assertive interests and in doing so compounds the disadvantage of patients and communities with the poorest health, 1 Hart JT The inverse care law. Lancet. 1971; 1: 405-412 Summary PubMed Scopus (2006) Google Scholar exists in most health systems. 50 years after Julian Tudor Hart's landmark paper in which he first described the inverse care law in England and Wales, 1 Hart JT The inverse care law. Lancet. 1971; 1: 405-412 Summary PubMed Scopus (2006) Google Scholar it is still going strong. 2 Fisher R Dunn P Asaria M et al. Briefing: level or not? Comparing general practice in areas of high and low socioeconomic deprivation in England. Health Foundation, London2020 Google Scholar , 3 Gopfert A Deeny SR Fisher R Stafford M Primary care consultation length by deprivation and multimorbidity in England: an observational study using electronic patient records. Br J Gen Pract. 2020; (published online Dec 14.)https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20X714029 Crossref PubMed Scopus (7) Google Scholar In The Lancet, Richard Cookson and colleagues 4 Cookson R Doran T Asaria M Gupta I Parra Mujica F The inverse care law re-examined: a global perspective. Lancet. 2021; 397: 828-838 Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (14) Google Scholar provide a global re-examination of the inverse care law. 50 years of the inverse care law“The availability of good medical care tends to vary with the need for it in the population served. This inverse care law operates more completely where medical care is most exposed to market forces, and less so where such exposure is reduced.” Full-Text PDF The inverse care law in the Anthropocene epochJulian Tudor Hart described the inverse relationship between the need for effective health care and its provision in compelling terms. During his career in primary care in a former coal mining community in south Wales, UK, he showed how, by integrating clinical care with an epidemiological approach, much can be done to improve health in disadvantaged populations.1 He wrote the inverse care law2 based on an analysis of the UK National Health Service (NHS) 50 years ago and yet its importance has transcended that historical period and its national context. Full-Text PDF The inverse care law re-examined: a global perspectiveAn inverse care law persists in almost all low-income and middle-income countries, whereby socially disadvantaged people receive less, and lower-quality, health care despite having greater need. By contrast, a disproportionate care law persists in high-income countries, whereby socially disadvantaged people receive more health care, but of worse quality and insufficient quantity to meet their additional needs. Both laws are caused not only by financial barriers and fragmented health insurance systems but also by social inequalities in care seeking and co-investment as well as the costs and benefits of health care. Full-Text PDF

Continuity of Care Increases Clinical Productivity in Primary Care

Continuity of care, defined as an ongoing therapeutic relationship between a patient and a physician, is a defining characteristic of primary care services. However, arranging a consultation with one's regular doctor is increasingly difficult as practices seek to improve daily throughput to match rising consultation demand with an increasingly scarce clinical labor supply. The emergence of online providers accelerates this trend. We study the productivity implications of this reduction in care continuity by analyzing consultation-level data of over 10 million office consultations in 381 English primary care practices over a period of 11 years. We find that continuity of care has a significant productivity benefit. On average, the time to a patient's next visit is 13.2% (95% CI=[12.2%, 14.1%]) longer when the patient sees the doctor they have seen most frequently over the past two years, while there is no operationally meaningful difference in consultation length. The results are consistent across several model specifications that account for confounding and selection bias. The data also shows that the productivity benefit of care continuity is significantly larger for older patients, patients with multiple chronic conditions, and patients with mental health conditions. We estimate that the total demand for consultations in our sample would have fallen by 5.2% had all practices offered continuity of care at the level of the top decile of practices, prioritizing patient consultations that would yield the largest productivity benefits. We discuss operational and strategic implications of these findings for primary care practices and for third-party payers of their services.

The impact of shared decision making on time consumption and clinical decisions. A prospective cohort study

ObjectiveConcerns of increased time consumption and of the impact on clinical decisions may restrain doctors from shared decision making (SDM). This paper evaluates consultation length and decisions made when using an in-consult patient decision aid (PtDA). MethodsThis prospective cohort study compared an unexposed cohort with a cohort exposed to SDM and a PtDA in two preference-sensitive decision situations: invasive lung cancer diagnostics and adjuvant treatment for early breast cancer. Outcome measures were consultation length and decisions made. ResultsThe study included 261 consultations, 115 were in the SDM-exposed cohort. Consultations were inconsiderably longer in the SDM cohort; 2 min, 11 s (p = 0.2217) for lung cancer diagnostics and 3 min, 57 s (p = 0.1128) for adjuvant breast cancer treatment. In lung cancer diagnostics, consultation length became more uniform and decisions tended to become conservative after introduction of SDM. For adjuvant breast cancer, slightly more patients in the SDM cohort chose to decline treatment. ConclusionShared decision making did not take significantly longer time and led to slightly more conservative decisions. Practice implicationsSDM may be implemented without considerable impact on consultation length. The impact on clinical decisions depends mainly on the clinical situation.

Primary care consultation length by deprivation and multimorbidity in England: an observational study using electronic patient records

BackgroundLonger GP consultations are recommended as one way of improving care for people with multimorbidity. In Scotland, patients who are multimorbid and living in deprived areas do not have longer consultations, although their counterparts in the least deprived areas do. This example of the inverse care law has not been examined in England.AimTo assess GP consultation length by socioeconomic deprivation and multimorbidity.Design and settingRandom sample of 1.2 million consultations from 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2016 for 190 036 adults in England drawn from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink.MethodConsultation duration was derived from time of opening and closing the patient’s electronic record. Mean duration was estimated by multimorbidity level and type, adjusted for number of consultations and other patient and staff characteristics and patient and practice random effects.ResultsConsultations lasted 10.9 minutes on average and mean duration increased with number of conditions. Patients with ≥6 conditions had 0.9 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.8 to 1.0) minutes longer than those with none. Patients who are multimorbid and with a mental health condition had 0.5 (CI = 0.4 to 0.5) minutes longer than patients who were not multimorbid. However, consultations were 0.5 (CI = 0.4 to 0.5) minutes shorter in the most compared with the least deprived fifth of areas at all levels of multimorbidity.ConclusionGPs in England spend longer with patients who have more conditions, but, at all multimorbidity levels, those in deprived areas have less time per GP consultation. Further research is needed to assess the impact of consultation length on patient and system outcomes for those with multimorbidity.

Support for living well with long-term conditions: How people manage.

To explore how people self-manage their long-term conditions and the support enabling them to do so. People with long-term conditions are required to engage in daily self-management with the support of health practitioners, family and friends. A qualitative interview study. Thirty-two New Zealand European and Pacific people with long-term conditions were interviewed about how they manage their condition/s at home with support from family, neighbours, agencies and general practice doctors and nurses. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, checked and analysed for thematic content. The COREQ checklist was used. Three themes emerging from the data were as follows: 'acceptance' of conditions, limitations, support and advice; 'making it work' regarding life with long-term conditions; and the need for health practitioners to 'work alongside me'. People with long-term conditions struggle with acceptance of a diagnosis and symptoms, and acceptance of help which conflicts with their need to maintain independence and personal control. They self-manage every day, learning to plan, choose what and what not to do and negotiate with others to get tasks done and maintain quality of life. They manage better with support from understanding health practitioners, especially advanced nurses, with whom they have established a positive, sustained relationship. Active support for people to self-manage has been shown to assist people to achieve their goals and improve overall health and well-being. Nurses are well positioned to provide self-management support for people with long-term conditions but require allocated time and system changes to enable this. Practitioners need to acknowledge that it is difficult for people to accept diagnoses and symptoms and provide individualised support for this process. The desire to remain independent may limit acceptance of help, making it harder for people to maintain life quality. A change in length and content of consultations is required in order for practitioners to really get to know people and provide the self-management support they need to meet their goals.

Prise en charge du psychotraumatisme en médecine générale : état des lieux dans le Pas-de-Calais et élaboration d’un temps de formation destiné aux professionnels

The current geopolitical context, with the increase in the number of attacks on national territory, has brought out a collective awareness concerning the recognition and care of the psychologically injured. Traumatic events are in fact much broader and include not only natural or technological disasters, but also micro social disasters. As the first natural recourse in the population, the general practitioner is partly responsible for the management of psychotraumatic pathologies. This study provides an overview of the state of general medical care in the Pas-de-Calais: professional's sense of competence, the therapies prescribed, the secondary referrals and the difficulties encountered in consultation. A total of 141 general practitioners practising in the Pas-de-Calais in private practice were included without exclusion criteria, by means of online or paper self-questionnaires. ResultsGPs seem to underestimate the frequency of psychotraumatic pathologies, but 83.6% of GPs note their increasing prevalence and 95.8% admit a probable impact on their practice in the event of a disaster. Despite the HAS recommendations, 73.8% prescribe benzodiazepines and 19.1% antihistamines. Knowledge of specialised secondary referral options available is poor: 77.3% of GPs are unaware of the existence of Psychotrauma counselling. Initial training seems insufficient to master these skills, 59.6% use personal reading and 29.8% use in-service training. The main difficulties noted in these treatments were the length of consultation, the management of the emotional load and secondary referral options. These results, combined with the wishes expressed by a large majority of GPs, suggest the value of further training. ConclusionIf the medical-psychological emergency service is currently strengthening its system, it seems necessary to adapt the skills, resources and secondary referral options available to GPs. As privileged interlocutors of a population often devoid of psychiatric disorders, it is essential to include these practitioners in the Psychotrauma care.

Consultation length and no-show prediction for improving appointment scheduling efficiency at a cardiology clinic: A data analytics approach

BackgroundThe observed consultation length at specialty clinics, such as cardiology care, is represented by two underlying groups - one with zero service time due to patient no-shows, and the other characterized by positive values with high variance. This inconstancy affects the scheduler’s ability to accurately estimate consultation length, which, in turn, hinders effective utilization of the clinic’s resources and timely access to care. The objectives of this study were to: (i) predict the consultation length by accounting for its semicontinuous nature (i.e., zero in case of no-shows and positive otherwise), using machine learning (ML) algorithms, (ii) identify important features for predicting no-shows and non-zero consultation length, and (iii) assess the impact of integrating the ML-based prediction with the appointment scheduling system. MethodsWe used two-years of data extracted from the electronic medical records of a cardiology clinic. By leveraging 16 predictors pertaining to the patient, appointment, and doctor, a two-part ML-based approach was developed to handle the semicontinuous consultation length. Supervised classification models were employed to predict no-shows (i.e., categorize the consultation length as zero or positive), and regression algorithms were developed for estimating non-zero consultation lengths. Three algorithms, namely, random forests, stochastic gradient boosting, and deep neural networks, were individually employed for both no-show classification and positive consultation length prediction. Finally, the best performing classification and regression models were combined to establish the complete two-part model, and its prediction error on new data is benchmarked against the clinic’s current performance. The evaluation metrics for classification models were area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC-ROC) and area under the precision-recall curve (AUC-PR). The prediction performance of regression algorithms was evaluated by mean absolute error (MAE), root mean squared error (RMSE), and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE). A simulation modeling approach was adopted to ascertain the effectiveness of using ML-based prediction for scheduling decisions as opposed to the clinic’s current strategy. ResultsAmong the classification models tested, stochastic gradient boosted classification tree (SGBCT) demonstrated best performance (AUC-ROC = 0.85, AUC-PR = 0.64). For positive consultation length prediction, deep neural network regressor (DNNR) resulted in lowest prediction error (MAE = 8.55, RMSE = 6.88, MAPE = 12.24). The complete two-part model (SGBCT + DNNR) outperformed the clinic’s approach to consultation length estimation by achieving 50 % and 52 % reduction in RMSE and MAE, respectively. Further adopting it for appointment scheduling could reduce the patient waiting time and doctor idle time by 56 % and 52 %, respectively. Besides, several clinical insights, along with critical features for no-show and consultation length prediction, were also identified from our proof-of-concept study. ConclusionThis study demonstrates that routine clinical tasks such as estimation of consultation length and no-shows can be accurately predicted using ML algorithms, and subsequently integrated into the clinical scheduling system to improve resource utilization and reduce patient waiting time.

The Impact of Longer Consultation Time: A Simulation-Based Approach.

Maintaining a sufficient consultation length in primary health care (PHC) is a fundamental part of providing quality care that results in patient safety and satisfaction. Many facilities have limited capacity and increasing consultation time could result in a longer waiting time for patients and longer working hours for physicians. The use of simulation can be practical for quantifying the impact of workflow scenarios and guide the decision-making. To examine the impact of increasing consultation time on patient waiting time and physician working hours. Using discrete events simulation, we modeled the existing workflow and tested five different scenarios with a longer consultation time. In each scenario, we examined the impact of consultation time on patient waiting time, physician hours, and rate of staff utilization. At baseline scenarios (5-minute consultation time), the average waiting time was 9.87 minutes and gradually increased to 89.93 minutes in scenario five (10 minutes consultation time). However, the impact of increasing consultation time on patients waiting time did not impact all patients evenly where patients who arrive later tend to wait longer. Scenarios with a longer consultation time were more sensitive to the patients' order of arrival than those with a shorter consultation time. By using simulation, we assessed the impact of increasing the consultation time in a risk-free environment. The increase in patients waiting time was somewhat gradual, and patients who arrive later in the day are more likely to wait longer than those who arrive earlier in the day. Increasing consultation time was more sensitive to the patients' order of arrival than those with a shorter consultation time.

Is a tailored work-related support intervention feasible in everyday clinical practice? The experience of healthcare professionals and patients with cancer.

BACKGROUND:Work is valued as an important feature in life, however patients diagnosed with cancer can experience work-related problems. We developed a work-related support intervention to support those in need.OBJECTIVE:The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of the performed tailored GIRONA (Gastro Intestinal cancer patients Receiving Occupational support Near and After diagnosis) intervention and to describe the experiences of those receiving the work-related support and of those providing it.METHODS:An online questionnaire was used to survey the feasibility of the intervention of the support recipients (patients diagnosed with gastrointestinal cancer) and the support providers (healthcare professionals including: oncology nurses and oncological occupational physicians). Five themes were covered: acceptability, demand, implementation, practicality and integration of Bowen’s feasibility model.RESULTS:Twenty-three patients, 14 oncology nurses and 4 oncological occupational physicians, shared their experiences about the tailored work-related support intervention. This intervention was generally perceived as positive and feasible by the participants. Some patients received work-related support despite not experiencing severe problems; others mentioned that they received no such support even though they did need it. Despite positive experiences, there are some barriers to tackle, such as length of consultation, timing of the initiation of work-related support and embedding the oncological occupational physician within the clinical setting.CONCLUSION:According to the healthcare professionals involved, GIRONA is feasible, however some practical barriers were mentioned. The intervention was perceived as positive by both patients and healthcare professionals, but the tailored component could be further improved to better support those in need of work-related support.

Delayed Antibiotic Prescription by General Practitioners in the UK: A Stated-Choice Study.

Delayed antibiotic prescription in primary care has been shown to reduce antibiotic consumption, without increasing risk of complications, yet is not widely used in the UK. We sought to quantify the relative importance of factors affecting the decision to give a delayed prescription, using a stated-choice survey among UK general practitioners. Respondents were asked whether they would provide a delayed or immediate prescription in fifteen hypothetical consultations, described by eight attributes. They were also asked if they would prefer not to prescribe antibiotics. The most important determinants of choice between immediate and delayed prescription were symptoms, duration of illness, and the presence of multiple comorbidities. Respondents were more likely to choose a delayed prescription if the patient preferred not to have antibiotics, but consultation length had little effect. When given the option, respondents chose not to prescribe antibiotics in 51% of cases, with delayed prescription chosen in 21%. Clinical features remained important. Patient preference did not affect the decision to give no antibiotics. We suggest that broader dissemination of the clinical evidence supporting use of delayed prescription for specific presentations may help increase appropriate use. Establishing patient preferences regarding antibiotics may help to overcome concerns about patient acceptance. Increasing consultation length appears unlikely to affect the use of delayed prescription.

Emergency Department Admission Triggers for Palliative Consultation May Decrease Length of Stay and Costs.

Background: Emergency department (ED) initiated palliative consultation impacts downstream care utilization. Various admission consult triggers have been proposed without clear best practice or outcomes. Objective: This 18-month single-center study evaluated the clinical, operational, and financial impact of simplified admission triggers for ED-initiated palliative consults as compared to downstream Floor and intensive care unit (ICU) palliative consults initiated per usual practice. Methods: We distilled ED admission triggers into three criteria to ensure bedside actionability and sustainability: (1) end-stage illness, (2) functional limitation, and (3) clinician would not be surprised if the patient died this hospitalization. Eligible patients met all criteria, and received consultation within 24 hours of admission. We compared ED-initiated consults against Floor and ICU consults from March 1, 2018, to September 30, 2019, with matched cohort analysis to evaluate financial outcomes. Results: While overall palliative consult volume remained intentionally steady, the proportion of ED-initiated consults significantly increased (7% vs. 19%, p < 0.001). ED consistently comprised 15-25% of all monthly palliative consults. Compared with Floor, ED had similar ED length of stay (LOS) and inpatient mortality. Among live discharges, ED were more likely to be referred to hospice than Floor (59% vs. 47%, p = 0.24) or ICU (59% vs. 34%, p = 0.02). In a matched cohort analysis, ED demonstrated median cost avoidance of $9,082 per patient versus Floor ($5,578 vs. $14,660, p < 0.001) and $15,138 per patient versus ICU ($5,578 vs. $20,716, p < 0.001). ED had significantly shorter median LOS before consult than Floor (0 vs. 3 days, p < 0.001) or ICU (0 vs. 3 days, p < 0.001), which did not differ between live discharges or inpatient deaths. Overall hospital LOS was disproportionately shorter for ED, with a net difference-in-differences of 1-3.5 days compared to Floor and ICU. Conclusions: Simple ED admission triggers to expedite palliative engagement are associated with a 50-75% reduction in both hospital LOS and costs when compared against usual palliative consultation practice. ED initiation reduces both lead time before consultation and subsequent downstream hospitalization length.

Availability and quality of patient decision aids for dermatologic conditions

To the Editor: Patient decision aids (PDAs) are tools that facilitate shared decision making through the discussion of evidence-based options while clarifying patient preferences or values. The value of PDAs has been well established as an effective method of increasing knowledge, reducing decisional conflict, decreasing decisional regret, and improving patient participation in shared decision making.1 Despite misconceptions regarding PDAs increasing consultation time, results from a Cochrane review showed variable effects of PDAs on consultation length,1 and it has even been stated that PDAs may decrease the time required during follow-up visits.

Measuring satisfaction in the small animal consultation and its relationship to consult length

BackgroundMeasuring satisfaction is a useful metric of success of any interaction, but very few validated instruments exist for measuring the satisfaction of the veterinary surgeon (vet) and the client in...

Waiting time and medical consultation length in the Manaus metropolitan region, Brazil: a cross-sectional, population-based study, 2015.

Objective . To assess waiting times and length of medical consultations in the Manaus metropolitan region, Brazil. Methods . This was a cross-sectional study conducted with adults living in the region in 2015. Waiting time for consultation and length of consultation in minutes were reported by the participants. Analysis was performed using Tobit regression and weighted by the sample design. Results . 4,001 individuals were interviewed. Average waiting time was 125.4 minutes (95%CI 120.2;130.5), while consultations lasted an average of 52.5 minutes (95%CI 48.0;57.0). Women, poor people, people with less education, indigenous people, people resident in the state interior, people without health insurance, and individuals seen by gynecologists waited longer for their consultation (p <0.05). Consultation time was shorter for non-White people, those with poor health status and those who had health insurance (p <0.05). Conclusion . On average length of medical consultations was half the waiting time. Social inequalities were observed in these lengths of time.

Improved patient satisfaction and diagnostic accuracy in skin diseases with a Visual Clinical Decision Support System-A feasibility study with general practitioners.

Patient satisfaction is an important indicator of health care quality, and it remains an important goal for optimal treatment outcomes to reduce the level of misdiagnoses and inappropriate or absent therapeutic actions. Digital support tools for differential diagnosis to assist clinicians in reaching the correct diagnosis may be helpful, but how the use of these affect patients is not clear. The primary objective of this feasibility study was to investigate patient experience and satisfaction in a primary care setting where general practitioners (GPs) used a visual clinical decision support system (CDSS) compared with standard consultations. Secondary objectives were diagnostic accuracy and length of consultation. Thirty-one patients with a dermatologist-confirmed skin diagnosis were allocated to consult GPs that had been randomized to conduct either standard consultations (SDR, n = 21) or CDSS (n = 16) on two separate study days one week apart. All patients were diagnosed independently by multiple GPs (n = 3-8) in both the SDR and CDSS study arms. Using the CDSS, more patients felt involved in the decision making (P = 0.05). In addition, more patients were exposed to images during the consultations (P = 6.8e-27), and 83% of those that were shown images replied they felt better supported in the consultation. The use of CDSS significantly improved the diagnostic accuracy (34%, P = 0.007), and did not increase the duration of the consultation (median 10 minutes in both arms). This study shows for the first time that compared with standard GP consultations, CDSS assist the GP on skin related diagnoses and improve patient satisfaction and diagnostic accuracy without impacting the duration of the consultations. This is likely to increase correct treatment choices, patient adherence, and overall result in better healthcare outcomes.

Multimorbidity and consultation time: a systematic review

BackgroundMultimorbidity (MM) is one of the major challenges health systems currently face. Management of time length of a medical consultation with a patient with MM is a matter of concern for doctors.MethodsA systematic review was performed to describe the impact of MM on the average time of a medical consultation considering the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The systematic online searches of the Embase and PubMed databases were undertaken, from January 2000 to August 2018. The studies were independently screened by two reviewers to decide which ones met the inclusion criteria. (Kappa = 0.84 and Kappa = 0.82). Differing opinions were solved by a third person. This systematic review included people with MM criteria as participants (two or more chronic conditions in the same individual). The type of outcome included was explicitly defined – the length of medical appointments with patients with MM. Any strategies aiming to analyse the impact of MM on the average consultation time were considered. The length of time of medical appointment for patients without MM was the comparator criteria. Experimental and observational studies were included.ResultsOf 85 articles identified, only 1 observational study was included, showing a clear trend for patients with MM to have longer consultations than patients without MM criteria (p < 0.001).ConclusionsMore studies are required to better assess allocation length-time for patients with MM and to measure other characteristics like doctors’ workload.

Patients', healthcare providers', and health insurance employees' preferences for knee and hip osteoarthritis care: a discrete choice experiment.

Despite the wide range of treatment options for knee and hip osteoarthritis (KHOA), suboptimal care, low uptake and low adherence to treatment is widely seen. We need to gain insight into preferences for KHOA treatment. To determine patients', healthcare providers' and healthcare insurance employees' preferences for existing health care for KHOA. A survey containing a discrete choice experiment (DCE) was conducted. Patients with KHOA, healthcare providers (orthopaedists and GPs), and insurance employees had to choose scenarios that differed in six attributes: waiting times, out of pocket costs, travel distance, involved healthcare providers during consultation, length of consultation and access to specialist equipment. A (panel latent class) conditional logit model was used to determine the relative importance of the attributes and trade-offs that responders made, and to explore preference heterogeneity. A total of 648 patients completed the DCE. All six attributes played a significant role in patients' choices. On average, out of pocket costs were deemed undesirable by patients. A GP with an orthopaedist during the consultation was preferred compared to a GP alone. Healthcare providers (n = 76) and insurance employees (n = 150) showed similar preferences, with respect to out of pockets costs being valued less important. Latent class analysis identified four classes of patients varying in their preferences. Patients prefer less out of pocket costs and a GP with an orthopedists during consultation for KHOA care. Four subgroups of patients were identified that vary in preferences for KHOA care. These subgroups could provide opportunities to improve uptake, adherence and effectiveness of KHOA care.