Presentation
CHEERs to Closing Care Gaps: Epic Electronic Health Record-Driven Automated Patient Outreach for Outstanding Healthcare Services
DescriptionAutomated patient outreach (APO) approaches offer promising solutions to patient engagement for outstanding healthcare services (e.g., recommended cancer screening tests). APOs are customizable messaging systems that offload burden from primary care by engaging patients through automated outreach reminders, such as patient portal messages, text (SMS), and/or automated phone calls. Little is known, however, on the mechanisms by which APO can be effective.
To this end, we conducted a retrospective database study to evaluate the effectiveness of CHEERs, an Epic electronic health record (EHR) integrated APO system at a large, academic affiliated safety net health system located in the Northeast region of the US. The APOs conducted outreach to patients via patient portal (PP), phone call (Phone), or SMS messaging (SMS), as indicated by patient communication preference in the EHR. Each APO ‘campaign’ conducted outreach regarding a specific outstanding recommended healthcare service. These care gaps included lead screening, incomplete labs, immunizations due, colorectal cancer screening, incomplete CT imaging, and incomplete labs. A campaign may send one to three reminders, called ‘phases’, depending on campaign design and whether the care gap was closed.
Overall, patients appeared to respond positively to APO modalities, as indicated by completed recommended healthcare services. This presentation will review the overall success of different APO modalities (PP, Phone, or SMS) and how many phases (1, 2, or 3) were required to close each care gap. Analysis will also include how the effectiveness of APO differs by recommended healthcare services. Statistical significance was determined using Chi square test, with p<.05 determining presence of a statistically significant test.
These findings reveal EHR-integrated APOs are a viable method for conducting patient outreach for recommended outstanding healthcare services. SMS appeared to be a more effective approach for patients to complete a recommended health service. Additionally, the third phase was more likely to be successful. Notably, heterogeneity in results between some campaigns highlights how different services may require different approaches and/or messaging (e.g., lead screening for pediatric populations) for patients than others (e.g., immunization for adults). Future work should further examine characteristics of patients best suited for APOs versus more traditional (e.g., phone call from community health care worker) outreach methods.
To this end, we conducted a retrospective database study to evaluate the effectiveness of CHEERs, an Epic electronic health record (EHR) integrated APO system at a large, academic affiliated safety net health system located in the Northeast region of the US. The APOs conducted outreach to patients via patient portal (PP), phone call (Phone), or SMS messaging (SMS), as indicated by patient communication preference in the EHR. Each APO ‘campaign’ conducted outreach regarding a specific outstanding recommended healthcare service. These care gaps included lead screening, incomplete labs, immunizations due, colorectal cancer screening, incomplete CT imaging, and incomplete labs. A campaign may send one to three reminders, called ‘phases’, depending on campaign design and whether the care gap was closed.
Overall, patients appeared to respond positively to APO modalities, as indicated by completed recommended healthcare services. This presentation will review the overall success of different APO modalities (PP, Phone, or SMS) and how many phases (1, 2, or 3) were required to close each care gap. Analysis will also include how the effectiveness of APO differs by recommended healthcare services. Statistical significance was determined using Chi square test, with p<.05 determining presence of a statistically significant test.
These findings reveal EHR-integrated APOs are a viable method for conducting patient outreach for recommended outstanding healthcare services. SMS appeared to be a more effective approach for patients to complete a recommended health service. Additionally, the third phase was more likely to be successful. Notably, heterogeneity in results between some campaigns highlights how different services may require different approaches and/or messaging (e.g., lead screening for pediatric populations) for patients than others (e.g., immunization for adults). Future work should further examine characteristics of patients best suited for APOs versus more traditional (e.g., phone call from community health care worker) outreach methods.
Event Type
Oral Presentations
TimeWednesday, March 2511:37am - 12:00pm EDT
LocationNassau
Digital Health