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The impact of e-visits on patient access to primary care.
- Source :
- Health Care Management Science; Dec2018, Vol. 21 Issue 4, p475-491, 17p, 1 Diagram, 3 Graphs
- Publication Year :
- 2018
-
Abstract
- To improve patient access to primary care, many healthcare organizations have introduced electronic visits (e-visits) to provide patient-physician communication through secure messages. However, it remains unclear how e-visit affects physicians' operations on a daily basis and whether it would increase physicians' panel size. In this study, we consider a primary care physician who has a steady patient panel and manages patients' office and e-visits, as well as other indirect care tasks. We use queueing-based performance outcomes to evaluate the performance of care delivery. The results suggest that improved operational efficiency is achieved only when the service time of e-visits is smaller enough to compensate the effectiveness loss due to online communications. A simple approximation formula of the relationship between e-visit service time and e-visit to office visit referral ratio is provided serving as a guideline for evaluating the performance of e-visit implementation. Furthermore, based on the analysis of the impact of e-visits on physician's capacity, we conclude that it is not the more e-visits the better, and the condition for maximal panel size is investigated. Finally, the expected outcomes of implementing e-visits at Dean East Clinic are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 13869620
- Volume :
- 21
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Health Care Management Science
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 132460401
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s10729-017-9404-8