Association between medical home characteristics and staff professional experiences in pediatric practices

Communication Among Team Members Within the Patient-centered Medical Home and Patient Satisfaction With Providers: The Mediating Role of Patient-Provider Communication

BACKGROUND

The Patient-centered Medical Home (PCMH) uses team-based care to improve patient outcomes, including satisfaction. The quality of patients' communication with their primary care providers (PCPs) is a key determinant of patient satisfaction. A shift to team-based care could disrupt the therapeutic relationship between patients and their PCPs and reduce patient satisfaction if communication and coordination among primary care team members is poor. Little is known about the relationship between intrateam communication within a PCMH and patient satisfaction with PCPs, and whether patient-provider communication might mediate this relationship.

OBJECTIVES

To examine the relationship between intrateam communication in a PCMH and patients' satisfaction with assigned PCPs, and whether patient-provider communication mediates this relationship.

RESEARCH DESIGN

Cross-sectional surveys of Veterans Health Administration PCPs (2011-2012, n=149) matched with their assigned patients' surveys (n=3329). Mediation analyses using a nested data structure, controlling for patient and provider characteristics.

MEASURES

Patient satisfaction with PCPs, patient-reported patient-provider communication, and PCP-reported intrateam communication within the PCMH.

RESULTS

Intrateam communication and patient-provider communication were independently associated with patients' satisfaction with their PCPs. Patient-provider communication mediated 56% of the association between intrateam communication and patient satisfaction. Better intrateam communication combined with better patient-provider communication predicted high satisfaction (81%), compared with poor intrateam communication and poor patient-provider communication (22%).

CONCLUSIONS

PCMH environments with better communication among team members are likely to experience better patient-provider communication and high patient satisfaction. PCMH practices with low ratings of patient satisfaction may need to look beyond individual PCPs to communication within and across teams.

From programme theory to logic models for multispecialty community providers: a realist evidence synthesis

Background

The NHS policy of constructing multispecialty community providers (MCPs) rests on a complex set of assumptions about how health systems can replace hospital use with enhanced primary care for people with complex, chronic or multiple health problems, while contributing savings to health-care budgets.

Objectives

To use policy-makers’ assumptions to elicit an initial programme theory (IPT) of how MCPs can achieve their outcomes and to compare this with published secondary evidence and revise the programme theory accordingly.

Design

Realist synthesis with a three-stage method: (1) for policy documents, elicit the IPT underlying the MCP policy, (2) review and synthesise secondary evidence relevant to those assumptions and (3) compare the programme theory with the secondary evidence and, when necessary, reformulate the programme theory in a more evidence-based way.

Data sources

Systematic searches and data extraction using (1) the Health Management Information Consortium (HMIC) database for policy statements and (2) topically appropriate databases, including MEDLINE, MEDLINE In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations, PsycINFO, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (ASSIA). A total of 1319 titles and abstracts were reviewed in two rounds and 116 were selected for full-text data extraction. We extracted data using a formal data extraction tool and synthesised them using a framework reflecting the main policy assumptions.

Results

The IPT of MCPs contained 28 interconnected context–mechanism–outcome relationships. Few policy statements specified what contexts the policy mechanisms required. We found strong evidence supporting the IPT assumptions concerning organisational culture, interorganisational network management, multidisciplinary teams (MDTs), the uses and effects of health information technology (HIT) in MCP-like settings, planned referral networks, care planning for individual patients and the diversion of patients from inpatient to primary care. The evidence was weaker, or mixed (supporting some of the constituent assumptions but not others), concerning voluntary sector involvement, the effects of preventative care on hospital admissions and patient experience, planned referral networks and demand management systems. The evidence about the effects of referral reductions on costs was equivocal. We found no studies confirming that the development of preventative care would reduce demands on inpatient services. The IPT had overlooked certain mechanisms relevant to MCPs, mostly concerning MDTs and the uses of HITs.

Limitations

The studies reviewed were limited to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries and, because of the large amount of published material, the period 2014–16, assuming that later studies, especially systematic reviews, already include important earlier findings. No empirical studies of MCPs yet existed.

Conclusions

Multidisciplinary teams are a central mechanism by which MCPs (and equivalent networks and organisations) work, provided that the teams include the relevant professions (hence, organisations) and, for care planning, individual patients. Further primary research would be required to test elements of the revised logic model, in particular about (1) how MDTs and enhanced general practice compare and interact, or can be combined, in managing referral networks and (2) under what circumstances diverting patients from in-patient to primary care reduces NHS costs and improves the quality of patient experience.

Study registration

This study is registered as PROSPERO CRD42016038900.

Funding

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Services and Delivery Research programme and supported by the NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care South West Peninsula.

Change implementation: the association of adaptive reserve and burnout among inpatient medicine physicians and nurses

Adaptive Reserve (AR) is positively associated with implementing change in ambulatory settings. Deficits in AR may lead to change fatigue or burnout. We studied the association of self-reported AR and burnout among providers to hospitalized medicine patients in an academic medical center. An electronic survey containing a 23-item Adaptive Reserve scale, burnout inventory, and demographic questions was sent to a convenience sample of nurses, house staff team members, and hospitalists. A total of 119 self-administered, online surveys collected from June 2014 to March 2015 were analyzed. Ordinal regression analyses were used to examine the association between AR and burnout. Eighty percent of participants reported either level 1 or 2 burnout. Additionally, 10.9% of participants responded level 0% and 7.6% of participants reported level 3. Participants reporting higher burnout were about three times more likely to report lower AR levels. AR is strongly associated with self-reported burnout by physicians and nurses providing inpatient care at this academic medical center. Growing evidence supports the positive association of AR to successful change implementation in ambulatory settings. Similar studies are needed to determine whether certain levels of AR can predict successful change in hospital settings.

Development and Testing of the Provider and Staff Perceptions of Integrated Care (PSPIC) Survey

This article discusses development and testing of the Provider and Staff Perceptions of Integrated Care Survey, a 21-item questionnaire, informed by Singer and colleagues' seven-construct framework. Questionnaires were sent to 2,936 providers and staff at 100 federally qualified health centers and other safety net clinics in 10 Midwestern U.S. states; 332 were ineligible, leaving 2,604 potential participants. Following 4 mailings, 781 (30%) responded from 97 health centers. Item analyses, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis were undertaken. Exploratory factor analysis suggests four latent factors: Teams and Care Continuity, Patient Centeredness, Coordination with External Providers, and Coordination with Community Resources. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed these factor groupings. For the total sample, Cronbach's alpha exceeded 0.7 for each latent factor. Descriptive responses to each of the 21 Provider and Staff Perceptions of Integrated Care questions appear to have potential in identifying areas that providers and staff recognize as care integration strengths, and areas that may warrant improvement.