Patient Preferences and Physician Practices for Laboratory Test Results Notification

Article Figures & Data

Table 1.

Description of Patient Population (n = 728)*

Table 2.

Patient Preferences for Laboratory Results Notification

Method of Notification	Normal Results^*(n = 688)	Abnormal Results^*(n = 700)	P
US mail	218 (31.7)	39 (5.6)	<.0001
E-mail	37 (5.4)	11 (1.6)	<.001
Phone call by clinic staff	163 (23.7	115 (16.4)	<.001
Phone call by physician	157 (22.8)	450 (64.3)	<.0001
Phone call by patient	18 (2.6)	12 (1.7)	.33
F/U or office visit	63 (9.2)	69 (9.9)	.72
No preference	32 (4.6)	4 (0.5)	<.0001

Table 3.

Patients’ First Choice of Method of Notification of Normal Laboratory Results*

Variable	US Mail	E-mail	Phone Call by Clinic Staff	Phone Call by Physician	Phone Call by Patient	F/U or Office Visit	No Preference	P
Gender								<.01
Male	24.4	7.6	23.1	25.3	3.6	13.8	2.2
Female	35.4	4.3	24.1	21.5	2.2	6.7	5.9
Age (years)								<.001
18–39	25.0	8.9	26.3	26.7	3.0	5.1	5.1
40–59	44.5	4.0	19.0	17.0	2.4	9.3	3.6
≥60	23.9	2.9	26.3	25.4	2.4	13.7	5.4
Race/ethnicity								.005
White	34.3	5.7	24.6	21.8	2.2	7.1	4.4
African American	28.3	4.3	17.4	32.6	3.3	10.9	3.3
Hispanic	17.5	3.2	28.6	17.5	6.3	19.0	7.9
Other	26.7	13.3	6.7	20.0	—	20.0	13.3
Education								<.001
Some high school	12.5	—	35.0	22.5	2.5	20.0	7.5
High school diploma	24.0	1.1	25.1	27.4	5.1	11.4	5.7
Some college	35.3	5.1	22.4	24.7	1.2	7.5	3.9
College graduate	38.2	10.4	21.2	16.0	2.4	7.5	4.2
Annual income ($)								.005
≤20,000	20.6	2.0	26.5	29.4	3.9	10.8	6.9
20,001–39,999	32.9	2.9	25.3	20.6	4.1	9.4	4.7
40,000–59,999	29.8	5.6	26.7	25.5	1.9	6.8	3.7
≥60,000	40.6	10.7	18.3	18.8	1.5	6.1	4.1
Marital status								.31
Single	32.8	6.2	23.5	21.0	2.1	10.3	4.1
Married	29.1	2.5	21.5	30.4	5.1	5.1	6.3
Separated	44.4	—	—	44.4	—	11.0	—
Divorced	34.4	7.8	26.6	20.3	3.1	3.1	4.7
Widowed	21.3	—	25.5	27.7	4.3	12.8	8.5

Table 4.

Patient Satisfaction with Current Method of Notification and Current Physician (n = 636)*

Satisfaction with Current Family Physician	Satisfaction with Current Method of Notification
Satisfaction with Current Family Physician	Very Dissatisfied	Somewhat Dissatisfied	Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied	Somewhat Satisfied	Very Satisfied	Total
Very dissatisfied	30	12	1	6	9	58
Somewhat dissatisfied	2	8	4	6	3	23
Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied	3	8	8	12	5	36
Somewhat satisfied	12	18	9	24	30	93
Very satisfied	54	50	36	99	187	426
Total	101	96	58	147	234	636