BACKGROUND The multiple competing demands of the busy office visit have been shown to interfere with delivery of preventive services. In this study we used physician recommendations for screening mammography to examine the relative importance of physician, patient, and visit characteristics in determining on which patient visits this preventive service will be provided. METHODS Physicians in ...

OBJECTIVES To assess knowledge and understanding of cost-sharing responsibilities and whether that knowledge and understanding influence actual and perceived use of healthcare services. STUDY DESIGN A 3000-person random sample was drawn from a state employee database in Massachusetts. METHODS Survey responses and claims analyses were used to assess knowledge of cost sharing and healthcare u...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether patient access to secure patient-physician messaging affects annual adult primary care office visit and documented telephone contact rates. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective cohort and matched-control studies with pre-post analysis. METHODS The cohort study sample included 4686 adult members of Kaiser Permanente Northwest (KPNW) who had been registered KP HealthConne...

HISTORY OF PRESENT ILLNESS This child’s BP measurements had been normal (i.e., 90/50 to 90/60 mmHg) at previous office visits. At the request of the NP, the child’s school nurse monitored his BP for 2 weeks following this office visit. The BP measurements taken at school also were elevated (121/58, 131/68, and 117/64 mmHg). At the follow-up office visit, the child’s BP remained hypertensive (12...

OBJECTIVE Our objective with this study was to assess the extent to which patients who are seen by practitioners in Pediatric Research in Office Settings, a national primary care practice-based research network, are representative of those who are seen in ambulatory office-based pediatric primary care in the United States. METHODS Pediatric Research in Office Settings patient data were collec...

Methodology Selected to Meet the Goals Within a two-day home office visit by the selected participants, we could not run one-at-a-time test sessions of all four software programs. Therefore, we decided to run concurrent sessions for each software program. Combining two of the software programs into one test, we ran a total of three tests, each in 12 concurrent sessions. This approach met the go...