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Published on: August 1, 2019
Primary Care Physician Factors Associated with Inbox Message Volume
David Margolius1, Jonathan Siff2, Kathryn Teng2
1From the Department of Medicine, MetroHealth System, Cleveland, OH (DM, KT, DE, SB); the Departments of Health Informatics and Emergency Medicine, MetroHealth System, Cleveland, OH (JS); and the Center for Health Care Research and Policy, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (DG). DMargolius@metrohealth.org.
Primary care clinician inboxes receive more messages with larger patient panels and higher patient socioeconomic status. Addressing this requires more staff or time to manage patient portal communications effectively.
Area of Science:
- Primary Care Medicine
- Health Informatics
- Healthcare Management
Background:
- Primary care clinicians manage substantial patient communication through electronic inboxes.
- Factors influencing inbox volume, such as panel size and patient demographics, are not fully understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between primary care clinician panel size, full-time status, and patient socioeconomic status with inbox message volume and types.
- To identify key drivers of primary care clinician workload related to electronic messaging.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from the Epic Signal database for 86 primary care clinicians across 19 sites.
- Employed correlation and multiple regression analyses to assess relationships between panel characteristics and inbox metrics.
Main Results:
- A positive correlation was observed between higher panel size, full-time clinician status, and increased inbox messages.
- Patient panels with higher socioeconomic status significantly contributed to the total number of inbox messages, particularly patient portal messages.
Conclusions:
- Panel size, clinician full-time status, and patient socioeconomic status are significant factors influencing primary care clinician inbox workload.
- Strategies to manage increasing inbox volume should consider panel composition and may necessitate additional staffing or protected time for clinicians.
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