Impact of eConsults on Clinical Care in Primary Care: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Primary Care Provider Behavior

Abstract

Introduction/objectives: Asynchronous electronic consultations (eConsults) support primary care providers (PCPs) by providing rapid specialist feedback and improve medically underserved patients' access to care.

Methods: This cross-sectional study assessed all eConsults requested over a one-year period at a multi-site federally qualified health center in Texas. We analyzed eConsult content and quality and conducted chart reviews for a randomly selected subsample (n = 100) to determine whether PCPs implemented specialists' recommendations within 90 days. Semi-structured interviews with PCPs assessed their ability and willingness to follow recommendations.

Results: There were 367 eConsults submitted by 25 PCPs across 15 adult medical and surgical specialties. Of the 100 charts reviewed n = 77 (77.0%) contained documentation indicating that the PCP had followed at least 1 of the specialist's recommendations within 90 days. In two-thirds of the cases (n = 66, 66%) the reviewing specialist indicated that a face-to-face referral was not needed. PCPs were most likely to follow recommendations for new medications and least likely to document that they had obtained additional patient history. PCPs noted that they were sometimes unable to follow recommendations when patients could not afford or access treatment or did not return for follow up care, or when they felt that the specialist did not address their specific question.

Conclusions: eConsults delivered to medically underserved patients in primary care help PCPs provide timely care for their patients. PCPs utilized a broad range of eConsult specialties and generally implemented eConsult specialists' recommendations within 90 days.

Keywords: access to care; eConsults; health inequities; health services accessibility; medically underserved; primary care; provider perspectives; referral and consultation; underserved communities; uninsured.