Multiple Practical Facts and Ideas to Improve Family Medicine Care

Seconds count in a study on the best electronic health note format to reduce medical record charting time and increase accuracy. Directly observed family physician work is compared with Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) coding examples and notably under-recognized. This issue contains articles from single practices that that implemented new methods of care and other reports on practice innovations that can be more broadly implemented. We have articles on opioid medication use for acute low back pain in primary care, an electronic chronic pain consult service, a key question to identify potential opioid misuse risk, and newly implemented screening for other substances of abuse. Omissions (or gaps) in care are also highlighted: from the common types of omissions identified by primary care clinicians, self-reported low levels of substance use screening by family medicine prenatal care providers, and inadequate and inadequately available hospital discharge summaries. In addition, the most important alarm symptoms for a cancer diagnosis are reported.