The increase in digital messaging between doctors and patients requires EHR management
The surge in the use of electronic health records has led to a significant increase in the number of messages in patient and physician inboxes, a trend exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This increase in digital communications has presented significant challenges to healthcare systems, leading some to implement changes to manage the growing clinical burden.
A recent study published in JAMA Network Open attempted to shed light on the complexity of electronic communication between patient and doctor within a large integrated healthcare system.
The study, conducted at Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC), focused on understanding the content and variability of messages, with the goal of improving the efficiency of processing patient messages. The research team analyzed more than four million patient messages exchanged between April and August 2023, which were then processed through KPNC’s Desktop Medicine program, designed to streamline message routing and optimize physician workflows.
The report found that more than three-quarters (77%) of messages received at least one label, with common categories such as medications, skin conditions, messages with attachments, and emerging content. Nearly a third of messages contained multiple labels, indicating the complexity and diversity of patient questions.
The research also revealed significant differences across message categories, with some topics showing consistent patterns while others showed acute fluctuations. For example, controlled substances and drug-related messages showed low variability, while topics like the flu vaccine and COVID-19 vaccine showed high variability.
The report noted that one aspect of the Desktop Medicine program was real-time analysis of message content, which helped identify emerging conditions and accelerate regional assessment. This proactive approach helped reduce the time to clinical assessment of potentially urgent cases.
“The results suggest that a healthcare system-wide approach to classifying patient messages, combined with well-defined regional workflows, can improve timely responses and significantly reduce physician inbox volume,” the report said.
Despite the program’s success in resolving more than 1.5 million patient messages, the study recognized limitations, including its focus on a single healthcare system and the exclusion of newer language models.
Researchers noted that future improvements are needed to address multi-topic posts and improve content labeling and responses.
THE BIG TREND
Healthcare systems and providers are looking at various solutions to better manage clinical documentation and EHR integration as they battle burnout and staff shortages. Earlier this month, Rush teamed up with Suki AI, a developer of a voice assistant for physicians, to address physician burnout.
The healthcare system is testing Suki’s platform for workflows in 30 specialties through bi-directional integration with Epic, with the goal of achieving a 72% reduction in time spent on clinical documentation.
Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins is advancing AI in Epic card summarization and has had success with AI-based patient portals, seeing promising results with environmental writing.
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