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3220 Can you read me now? Clinician variations in managing and responding to secure messages from patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2019

Joy Li-Yueh Lee
Affiliation:
Indiana University School of Medicine
Michael Weiner
Affiliation:
Indiana University School of Medicine
Marianne Matthias
Affiliation:
Indiana University School of Medicine
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Abstract

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OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: To identify areas of variation in primary care clinician responses to secure messaging and to assess the quality of secure messages by clinicians. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: This mixed-methods study included twenty one primary care clinicians from a Midwestern safety net hospital and Veterans Affairs medical center. Participants were presented with five short clinical vignettes and corresponding secure messages from hypothetical patients and asked to compose responses. Participants were interviewed about their cognitive approach to the responses as well as perspectives on quality of care as related to electronic communications. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Every participant recalled having patients who misused secure messaging for urgent issues, suggesting the need for more patient education and the possible adverse consequences of overlooked messages. The study also uncovered key differences in several areas, include clinician timeliness, message management, the circumstances in which they would use messaging, and the content of the messages (including patient-centeredness). While participants agreed that messages about clinical issues should not be resolved via secure messaging, there was a lack of consensus regarding emotionally charged messages and messages dealing with medication adjustments. Some participants spoke of the need for more guidance in knowing when best to use secure messaging. “Sometimes,” one physician said, “it feels like we’re just making up [rules for secure messaging].” Although clinician responses were uniformly respectful, the patient-centeredness varied in the use of jargon and social talk, as well as clarity for patients. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: This study revealed variations in provider approaches to secure messaging, and the content of responses. These variations reflect lack of consensus about how care is delivered via secure messaging, and reveal the need for clinician guidance. They also suggest possible negative patient consequences if secure messaging is used ineffectively. The extent to which variations are undesirable remains unknown. Future work will explore the consequences of such variations.

Type
Digital Health, Social Media, and AI
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-ncnd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
© The Association for Clinical and Translational Science 2019