ABSTRACT
Objectives
Access to specialty care among safety net patients in the United
States is inadequate. Discharging appropriate patients to routine
primary care follow-up may improve specialty care access. We
sought to identify, by consensus, patients who could safely be
discharged from a gastroenterology (GI) clinic, and to evaluate
the impact of the discharges on GI clinic work flow.
Study Design
Pre- and post intervention.
Methods
We developed and implemented a modified Delphi process.
Gastroenterologists and primary care providers (PCPs) rated their
comfort (using 5-point Likert scales) with discharging patients
immediately post endoscopy for 24 clinical scenarios, assuming
formal recommendations were communicated to the PCP. We
examined the impact of implementing these criteria on clinic
wait times and on the ratio of new to follow-up visits.
Results
All gastroenterologists (100%; 7 of 7) and 71.0% of PCPs (130 of
183) participated. Consensus was achieved for 13 of the 24
clinical scenarios for which discharge criteria were developed.
Post intervention, 403 patients were discharged from the GI
clinic, compared with 0 patients in the same 4 calendar months
pre-intervention. The ratio of new to follow-up appointments increased
from 0.9:1 to 1:1 (P = .05). Median wait time for the third
next available appointment at GI clinics decreased from 158 days
to 74 days (P = .0001).
Conclusions
Discharging patients from specialty care back to primary care
with consensus standards is one method to improve access to
specialty care. Understanding the concerns of all stakeholders is
necessary to refine and disseminate this process to other specialties
and healthcare systems to ensure timely access to specialty
services for all patients.
Am J Manag Care. 2014;20(10):812-819