Actualizing Better Health and Health Care for Older Adults: Health Affairs March Issue
In a focus on “age-friendly health”, Terry Fulmer et al note that our health care system is unprepared to care for its growing population of older adults, and that new approaches must be considered, including telehealth modalities offering education, such as e-consult. Dr. Fulmer joined us for our March 2021 E-Consult workgroup webinar. Recommendations Include:…
Read MoreCentral Valley Health Network February 2021 Meeting
The Central Valley Health Network’s February 2021 meeting featured a presentation on the Central Valley e-Consult Coalition work to support clinics and health systems in the region by providing no-cost access to electronic consult (e-consult) in order to improve Medi-Cal patient access to specialty care and enhance care coordination between primary providers and specialists. View…
Read MoreFebruary 2021 Central Valley E-Consult Roundtable
The Central Valley E-Consult Coalition holds monthly coalition roundtables to share program announcements and allow participants to share updates on eConsult implementation efforts. February’s Agenda Included: E-Consult Rollout Updates Updates on the CVeC Dashboard A short discussion about E-Consult Use at Camarena Health A presentation regarding how to effectively ask questions and provide responses with…
Read MoreScaling E-Consult Success
An observational cohort study published in the American Journal of Managed care examined administrative data of all veterans who received an e-consult across 41 specialties and 1269 VHA medical centers and clinical sites from 2012 to 2018. The authors found that the number of e-Consults increased by 309% for all specialties by 2018. It was found that…
Read MoreMajor Cost Savings Associated with VHA E-Consults
A study across the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) shows that e-consults improve access to specialty care, shorten wait times, and reduce outpatient visits. Across 11 specialties, patients receiving an e-consult had significantly lower health care costs compared with patients receiving a face-to-face consultation. This was largely driven by differences in outpatient costs. Patients receiving an e-consult had…
Read MoreFebruary 2021 E-Consult Workgroup Webinar
The February 2021 e-Consult Workgroup meeting hosted guest speaker, California State Senator Caballero. Senator Caballero spoke and answered questions about SB 365, an e-Consult bill she is sponsoring. Later on in the meeting, featured speakers Michelle Lee and Vinod Nambudiri, MD of Partners Healthcare, MA, presented their recently published article, Electronic Consultations for Safe and Equitable…
Read MoreCalifornia SB365 Supports Primary Care Provider E-Consult Reimbursement
Senator Anna M. Caballero, 12th Senate District, California, has sponsored a bill requiring Medi-Cal to reimburse all participating primary care providers, including those who operate out of a federally qualified health center (FQHC) or rural health clinic (RHC) for e-consult services. Read SB 365 bill language here. To sign the E-Consult Workgroup letter of support for…
Read MoreCentral Valley E-Consult Roundtable December 2020
The Central Valley E-Consult Coalition holds coalition roundtables each month. The December roundtable featured updates from our coalition participants on eConsult implementation, a discussion of goals for provider engagement and a presentation from eConsult Workgroup Clinical Advisor Delphine Tuot focused on provider engagement and workflow process improvement. View our December roundtable meeting summary.
Read MoreJanuary 2021 Central Valley eConsult Roundtable
The Central Valley E-Consult Coalition holds monthly coalition roundtables to share program announcements and allow participants to share updates on eConsult implementation efforts. The January roundtable also featured a presentation on “E-Consult, Equity, and Patient Engagement” from Denise D. Payán, PhD, MPP, Community Health & Innovative Policy Lab, UC Merced. View a recording of this…
Read MoreE-Consult: A Tool to Improve Patient Access and Outcomes for Racial Minorities and Underinsured
Researchers at Ohio State University performed a cross-sectional evaluation on all ambulatory dermatology referrals and eConsults over a 25-month period. The study reports that eConsults served more nonwhite patients and Medicaid enrollees compared to ambulatory referrals. Additionally, ambulatory referral patients were significantly less likely to attend their scheduled appointments compared with eConsult patients. Based on these results, the study…
Read MoreE-Consult: Safe and Equitable Coordination of Specialty Care
Michelle Lee, MD, and Vinod Nambudiri, MD of Partners Healthcare, MA, recently published, Electronic Consultations for Safe and Equitable Coordination of Virtual Outpatient Specialty Care. This article, published in the Journal of Applied Clinical Informatics, argues that eConsults can improve the transition of care between primary care and specialists. The authors cite previous clinical studies to highlight how eConsults can improve the relationship and communication between PCPs and specialists and improve PCP education, patient access…
Read MorePrimary Care Providers’ Perspective on eConsult
The Ontario eConsult Program has been a frequent feature of the E-Consult Workgroup with its longstanding success in provider engagement, cost savings and workflow process improvement. In a 2019 provider survey of 1,256 primary care providers (PCPs), summarized in the recent Telemedicine and E-Health article: 74% of PCPs agreed that eConsult improved their referral decision making 73% agreed…
Read MoreE-Consult: An Opportunity for Financial and Operational Innovation
Catalyst, a New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) publication, released a case study titled E-Consult Innovation: A Middle-Ground Model To Enhance Adoption and Improve Care. This study tested the efficacy of alternative operational and financial models for e-Consult. HealthPartners designed a vertically integrated system that engaged third-party payers and implemented an in-house method to compensate specialists and primary care…
Read MoreThe Vascular eConsult: Useful and Efficient
A study titled The Vascular eConsult: An Efficient, Useful, and Economical Tool for Primary Care Physicians to Interact With a Vascular Specialist, for Proper Care of the Vascular Patient by Ottawa researchers from the Ontario eConsult Program reviewed 846 cases that had been submitted for a vascular surgery e-consult between 2014 to 2016. Each case included mandatory…
Read MoreJanuary 2021 eConsult Workgroup Webinar
The January 2021 E-Consult Workgroup webinar featured a presentation from the Ontario (Ottawa) eConsult Program, led by Clare Liddy, MD and two members of her research team, Alexander Hajjir and Claire Sethuram. The presentation focused on findings from their recent publications: Primary Care Providers’ Perspectives on the Ontario eConsult Program Researchers analyzed a 2019 provider…
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