Primary care clinician perspectives on automated nephrology e-consults for diabetic kidney disease: a pre-implementation qualitative study

Abstract Background Many patients with diabetic kidney disease (DKD) do not receive evidence-based, guideline-recommended treatment shown to reduce DKD progression and complications. Proactive electronic consultations (e-consults) are an emerging intervention strategy that could potentially allow nephrologists to provide timely and evidence-based guidance to primary care providers (PCPs) engaged in early DKD care. Methods The objective of this study was to explore perspectives about potential barriers and facilitators associated with a proactive e-consult program to improve DKD care delivery. We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with PCPs across three different health systems. Interview transcripts were reviewed in a rapid qualitative analysis approach to iteratively identify, refine, and achieve consensus on a final list of themes and subthemes. Results A total of 18 interviews were conducted. PCPs across all sites identified similar challenges to delivering guideline-recommended DKD care. PCPs were supportive of the proactive e-consult concept. Three major themes emerged surrounding (1) perceived potential benefits of proactive e-consults, including educational value and improved specialist access; (2) concerns about the proactive nature of e-consults, including the potential to increase PCP workload and the possibility that e-consults could be seen as documenting substandard care; and (3) leveraging of care teams to facilitate recommended DKD care, such as engaging clinic-based pharmacists to implement specialist recommendations from e-consults. Conclusion In this pre-implementation qualitative study, PCPs noted potential benefits and identified concerns and implementation barriers for proactive e-consults for DKD care. Strategies that emerged for promoting successful implementation included involving clinic support staff to enact e-consult recommendations and framing e-consults as a system improvement effort to avoid judgmental associations.