Department of Family Medicine, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, D009-780 Bannatyne Ave., MB, Winnipeg, R3E 0W2, Canada.
Department of Family Medicine, University of Manitoba, D009-780 Bannatyne Ave., MB, Winnipeg, R3E 0W2, Canada.
BMC Health Serv Res. 2023 Feb 9;23(1):131. doi: 10.1186/s12913-022-08913-3.
The burden of waiting to access specialist expertise may contribute to poorer health outcomes and causes distress for patients and providers. One solution to improve access to specialist care is to use innovative tools such as remote asynchronous electronic consultation (eConsult). Modeled after the Champlain BASE™ (Building Access to Specialist Advice) eConsult service, BASE™ eConsult Manitoba was launched in 2017 to help address long waits for patients to access specialist advice.
We aimed to evaluate patients' experiences after obtaining a BASE™ eConsult Manitoba service in their primary care setting.
Patients whose Primary Care Providers (PCPs) used BASE™ eConsult as part of their care were asked to participate and complete a telephone-based or online 29-question survey between January 2021 and October 2021. The survey questions were created in consultation with patient partners and based on questions asked in studies done in other jurisdictions.
Of the 36 patients who chose to participate, 29 completed the entire survey (80%). Two-thirds (n = 22) agreed that eConsult has been helpful in their situation, and over 80% (n = 24) of participants agreed that eConsult was an acceptable way to access specialist care. During the visit when their PCP sent the eConsult, 7 patients were expecting to be referred to a specialist for a face-to-face consultation. Over half of all respondents (n = 15) reported that before the eConsult occurred, their PCP asked them what questions they wanted to be answered by the specialist. Almost all of these respondents' questions were fully answered by the eConsult. All of the respondents were satisfied with the experience of receiving an eConsult.
Using eConsult is an acceptable way to improve access to specialist advice from patients' perspectives. Consideration should be given to expanding the use of eConsult services to improve access to specialist expertise for PCPs and their patients.
等待获得专家专业知识的负担可能会导致更差的健康结果，并给患者和提供者带来困扰。改善获得专家护理的一种解决方案是使用远程异步电子咨询（eConsult）等创新工具。BASE™ eConsult Manitoba 是仿照 Champlain BASE™（Building Access to Specialist Advice）eConsult 服务而建立的，于 2017 年推出，旨在帮助解决患者等待获得专家建议的时间过长的问题。
我们旨在评估患者在初级保健环境中获得 BASE™ eConsult Manitoba 服务后的体验。
在 2021 年 1 月至 2021 年 10 月期间，要求使用 BASE™ eConsult 作为其护理一部分的初级保健提供者（PCP）的患者参与并完成一项基于电话或在线的 29 个问题的调查。调查问题是在与患者合作伙伴协商并基于在其他司法管辖区进行的研究中提出的问题的基础上创建的。
在选择参与的 36 名患者中，有 29 名患者完成了整个调查（80%）。三分之二（n=22）的患者同意 eConsult 在他们的情况下是有帮助的，超过 80%（n=24）的参与者同意 eConsult 是一种可以接受的获得专家护理的方式。在他们的 PCP 发送 eConsult 的就诊期间，有 7 名患者希望被转介给专家进行面对面咨询。超过一半的受访者（n=15）报告说，在 eConsult 发生之前，他们的 PCP 询问他们希望专家回答哪些问题。几乎所有这些受访者的问题都在 eConsult 中得到了充分回答。所有受访者对接受 eConsult 的体验感到满意。
从患者的角度来看，使用 eConsult 是一种可以接受的方法，可以改善获得专家建议的机会。应考虑扩大 eConsult 服务的使用，以改善 PCP 和他们的患者获得专家专业知识的机会。
