| Method of Communicating Results† | Practices That Always/Often Use Method, n (%)‡ | |
|---|---|---|
| Urban | Rural | |
| Normal and clinically insignificant abnormal results | ||
| Personal call from clinician | 127 (40) | 22 (31) |
| Medical assistant/nurse phone call to patient | 125 (40 | 56 (80) |
| Patient instructed to call | 62 (20) | 19 (27) |
| Patient to assume test is normal if not notified | 94 (30) | 11 (17) |
| Send personal note | 72 (23) | 17 (24) |
| Send form letter to patient | 145 (46) | 30 (43) |
| Mail copy of test results | 138 (44) | 15 (21) |
| Results available on secure website for patients to access | 58 (19) | 1 (1) |
| Results emailed to patients | 15 (5) | 0 (0) |
| Results available on automated phone-in system | 2 (<1) | 0 (0) |
| Results available during patient visit | 153 (50) | 53 (75) |
| Laboratory center directly notifies patient | 4 (1) | 1 (1) |
| Clinically significant abnormal results | ||
| Personal call from clinician | 257 (82) | 47 (67) |
| Medical assistant/nurse phone call to patient | 124 (40) | 53 (76) |
| Patient instructed to call | 49 (17) | 19 (28) |
| Send personal note | 43 (14) | 9 (13) |
| Results available on secure website for patients to access | 47 (16) | 1 (1) |
| Results emailed to patients | 15 (5) | 0 (0) |
| Results available on automated phone-in system | 5 (1) | 0 (0) |
| Send form letter to patient | 65 (22) | 20 (29) |
| Mail copy of test results | 93 (31) | 11 (16) |
| Results available during patient visit | 124 (42) | 45 (64) |
| Laboratory center directly notifies patient | 5 (2) | 2 (3) |
Bold indicates significant different between clinicians and staff and managers.
↵* Analysis was confined to responses from the 17 practices with an internal response rate of at least 70%, by role.
↵† Row percentages for each notification method could be <100% because not every respondent selected each method.
↵‡ Respondents to the survey (clinicians, staff, and managers) were able to select all notification methods that apply to their practice; therefore, column percentages may be >100%.