TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessing the quality of the after-visit summary (AVS) in a primary-care clinic
AU - Mir, Tasaduq Hussain
AU - Osayande, Amimi
AU - Kone, Kimberly
AU - Bridges, Kate
AU - Day, Philip
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 American Board of Family Medicine. All rights reserved.
PY - 2019/1/1
Y1 - 2019/1/1
N2 - Background and Objective: As part of Affordable Care Act, the Centers for Medicaid Services (CMS) recommend physicians provide patients with an After-Visit Summary (AVS) following a clinic visit. Information should be relevant and actionable with specific instructions regarding their visit and health. Until recently, this recommendation was included as part of meeting the standard for Stage 1 Meaningful Use for all physicians using electronic-health-record (EHR) technology. In 2016, CMS issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to institute parts of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 Merit-based Incentive Payment System, which continues to focus on quality, resource use, and use of certified EHR technology. The purpose of this study was to assess the usefulness of the AVS for patients seen at the Parkland Family Medicine Residency Clinic. Methods: Electronic medical records of 250 randomly selected patients seen at the Parkland Family Medicine Residency Clinic between July 2013 and July 2014 were reviewed using the 3 W’s question format, a modified version of the National Patient Safety Foundation’s “Ask Me 3 Program,” designed to improve communication between patients and their health care providers. Results: The goal of the quality improvement study was to ensure that all patients receive a meaningful (relevant, accurate, and actionable) AVS after each clinic visit. Chart review indicated that 100% of patients received an AVS after each clinic visit. Of these patients, 51.2% were Spanish speaking, 47.2% English speaking, and 1.6% spoke neither English nor Spanish. Of the non-English-speaking patients, 84.8% received the AVS in their first language; the other 15.2% received the AVS in English. Sixteen percent (16%) of patients overall were considered to have received a nonmeaningful AVS. Reasons for the AVS not being meaningful included not containing any information on the patient’s presenting problem (39.2%), physician intervention (35%), or plan of care (18.4%). Conclusions: This study confirmed that although we demonstrate meaningful use of our EHR system, the content of the AVS needs to be improved on.
AB - Background and Objective: As part of Affordable Care Act, the Centers for Medicaid Services (CMS) recommend physicians provide patients with an After-Visit Summary (AVS) following a clinic visit. Information should be relevant and actionable with specific instructions regarding their visit and health. Until recently, this recommendation was included as part of meeting the standard for Stage 1 Meaningful Use for all physicians using electronic-health-record (EHR) technology. In 2016, CMS issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to institute parts of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 Merit-based Incentive Payment System, which continues to focus on quality, resource use, and use of certified EHR technology. The purpose of this study was to assess the usefulness of the AVS for patients seen at the Parkland Family Medicine Residency Clinic. Methods: Electronic medical records of 250 randomly selected patients seen at the Parkland Family Medicine Residency Clinic between July 2013 and July 2014 were reviewed using the 3 W’s question format, a modified version of the National Patient Safety Foundation’s “Ask Me 3 Program,” designed to improve communication between patients and their health care providers. Results: The goal of the quality improvement study was to ensure that all patients receive a meaningful (relevant, accurate, and actionable) AVS after each clinic visit. Chart review indicated that 100% of patients received an AVS after each clinic visit. Of these patients, 51.2% were Spanish speaking, 47.2% English speaking, and 1.6% spoke neither English nor Spanish. Of the non-English-speaking patients, 84.8% received the AVS in their first language; the other 15.2% received the AVS in English. Sixteen percent (16%) of patients overall were considered to have received a nonmeaningful AVS. Reasons for the AVS not being meaningful included not containing any information on the patient’s presenting problem (39.2%), physician intervention (35%), or plan of care (18.4%). Conclusions: This study confirmed that although we demonstrate meaningful use of our EHR system, the content of the AVS needs to be improved on.
KW - Electronic health records
KW - Meaningful use
KW - Primary health care
KW - Quality improvement
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U2 - 10.3122/jabfm.2019.01.180055
DO - 10.3122/jabfm.2019.01.180055
M3 - Article
C2 - 30610143
AN - SCOPUS:85059499843
SN - 1557-2625
VL - 32
SP - 65
EP - 68
JO - Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine
JF - Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine
IS - 1
ER -