| Method of Communicating Results† | Practices That Always/Often Use Method, n (%)‡ | |
|---|---|---|
| Practices With EHR | Practices Without EHR | |
| Normal and clinically insignificant abnormal results | ||
| Personal call from clinician | 104 (41) | 36 (32) |
| Medical assistant/nurse phone call to patient | 137 (54) | 36 (32) |
| Patient instructed to call | 54 (22) | 25 (23) |
| Patient to assume test is normal if not notified | 68 (27) | 30 (28) |
| Send personal note | 68 (27) | 19 (17) |
| Send form letter to patient | 117 (46) | 47 (42) |
| Mail copy of test results | 108 (42) | 39 (35) |
| Results available on secure website for patients to access | 28 (11) | 30 (27) |
| Results emailed to patients | 9 (4) | 6 (6) |
| Results available on automated phone-in system | 2 (<1) | 0 (0) |
| Results available during patient visit | 139 (56) | 55 (50) |
| Laboratory center directly notifies patient | 5 (2) | 0 (0) |
| Clinically significant abnormal results | ||
| Personal call from clinician | 204 (81) | 83 (75) |
| Medical assistant/nurse phone call to patient | 136 (54) | 33 (30) |
| Patient instructed to call | 48 (20) | 19 (18) |
| Send personal note | 39 (16) | 10 (9) |
| Results available on secure website for patients to access | 22 (9) | 25 (24) |
| Results emailed to patients | 8 (3) | 7 (7) |
| Results available on automated phone-in system | 5 (2) | 0 (0) |
| Send form letter to patient | 55 (23) | 26 (24) |
| Mail copy of test results | 71 (29) | 31 (29) |
| Results available during patient visit | 110 (46) | 50 (46) |
| Laboratory center directly notifies patient | 6 (3) | 1 (<1) |
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 percentage 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, percentages may be >100%.