From Headache to Handled: Advanced In-Basket Management System in Primary Care Clinics Reduces Provider Workload...

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Clinical Informatics
• Primary Care Medicine

Background:

• Electronic Health Records (EHR) contribute to provider burnout.
• Increasing In-Basket message volume exacerbates this issue.
• Effective In-Basket management is crucial for primary care provider well-being.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of a team-based approach to In-Basket management.
• To assess the implementation of the Advanced In-Basket Management (AIM) nurse team triage.
• To analyze effects on provider workload and burnout in primary care.

Main Methods:

• Workflow analysis of nurse team triage implementation across six family medicine clinics.
• Abstraction and analysis of provider workflow metrics from EHR data.
• Post-intervention provider surveys on satisfaction and burnout.

Main Results:

• Reduced In-Basket messages per provider daily (12.2 fewer).
• Decreased time spent outside scheduled hours (6.3 fewer minutes/day).
• Lower In-Basket time (3.5 fewer minutes/day), with increased time per message (13.7 sec).
• 64% reported no burnout; 56% agreed AIM reduced burnout; ~70% found AIM acceptable.

Conclusions:

• Team-based nurse In-Basket triage (AIM) is implementable across multiple primary care sites.
• The AIM project is an acceptable intervention for providers.
• AIM effectively reduces provider workload and self-reported burnout.