PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - David Margolius
AU  - Jonathan Siff
AU  - Kathryn Teng
AU  - Douglas Einstadter
AU  - Douglas Gunzler
AU  - Shari Bolen
TI  - Primary Care Physician Factors Associated with Inbox Message Volume
AID  - 10.3122/jabfm.2020.03.190360
DP  - 2020 May 01
TA  - The Journal of the American Board of Family
                Medicine
PG  - 460--462
VI  - 33
IP  - 3
4099  - http://www.jabfm.org/content/33/3/460.short
4100  - http://www.jabfm.org/content/33/3/460.full
SO  - J Am Board Fam Med2020 May 01; 33
AB  - Introduction: The objective of this study was to better understand the relationship between panel size, full-time status, and estimated socioeconomic status of a patient panel with types and number of primary care clinician inbox messages.Methods: The study used data from the Epic Signal database to examine inbox volume and types of messages for 86 primary care clinicians at 19 primary care sites. We measured correlations and performed multiple regression analysis to understand the relationship between inbox volume and types of messages and 3 factors: panel size, full-time status, and estimated socioeconomic status of patient panels.Results: The study found positive correlation between the number of messages and panel size, full-time status, and estimated socioeconomic status of patient panels. The number of patient portal messages generated from patient panels with higher socioeconomic status accounted for the positive correlation in total inbox messages and that factor.Discussion: These findings contribute to our understanding of primary care workload, specifically as it relates to panel size, full-time status, and patient panel socioeconomic status. Increase in clinical time or panel size needs to come with trained team members or additional time to address inbox messages.