ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Lenard I Lesser, MD, MSHS; Esha Datta, PhD; Raj Behal, MD, MPH
Corresponding Author: Lenard I Lesser, MD, MSHS; Population Health
Email: LLesser@onemedical.com
DOI: 10.3122/jabfm.2024.240088R1
Keywords: Cancer Screening, Cohort Studies, Diabetes Mellitus, Population Health, Preventive Health Services, Primary Health Care, Quality Improvement
Dates: Submitted: 02-23-2024; Revised: 09-25-2024; Accepted: 10-07-2024
Status: In production for ahead of print.
BACKGROUND: Preventive care improves patient health and is cost effective, yet many patients are not up to date on recommended screenings.
OBJECTIVE: Evaluate the effectiveness of an automated system for outreach to patients in need of annual preventive examinations, cervical cancer screening, and diabetes monitoring labs.
METHODS: As part of a quality improvement project, we created a population health algorithm and outreach system which was designed to send email and smartphone notifications to patients overdue for preventive services. The study was a cohort study, with a matched control sample. We compared completion of preventive exams and screenings between the two groups, in the four weeks following the outreach.
RESULTS: For annual preventive visits, the intervention group had 9.0% more visits (95%CI: 8.2- 9.7) than the control group. For cervical cancer screening, the intervention group had 3.2% (95%CI: 2.0%- 4.4%) more visits. Lab action orders for diabetes showed the largest increases. The intervention group had 5.2% (2.5% - 7.9%) more patients get bloodwork and 20.8% (16.9% - 24.6%) get more urine microalbumin tests.
CONCLUSIONS: A population health outreach system that used reminders for prevention resulted in patients completing appointments for necessary medical services. Such a system, when deployed more broadly could help close care gaps and improve health for people that are asymptomatic but are due for preventive screenings.