Dive Brief:
- While coordinated care is improving, it has a long way to go in the areas of technology, 24/7 patient care access and preventive primary care, according to a Nielsen Strategic Health Perspectives report released this week.
- The Council of Accountable Physician Practices (CAPP) sponsored the survey in which just half of the patients were getting the benefits of coordinated care, and only a third have 24/7 access to healthcare outside of the emergency department.
- It also found slow progress in the use of technology to connect doctors and patients, and found patients reporting a lack of prevention counseling from their physicians.
Dive Insight:
The survey of 30,007 U.S. healthcare consumers and 626 physicians was the second annual version sponsored by CAPP to assess the impacts of healthcare delivery reform and accountability.
It looked at the five patient benefits associated with accountable care: care team coordination, prevention, 24/7 access, evidence-based medicine as well as patient and physician access to and use of robust information technology. According to CAPP, the results are grim.
“This survey is evidence of the failure of American health care to provide coordinated, technologically enabled, high-quality health care to the majority of people,” CAPP chairman Robert Pearl, CEO of the Permanente Medical Group and the Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group, said in a prepared statement. Pearl suggested the findings back up CAPP’s assertion that "patient-centered care models are critical to closing the gaps between what patients need and what they are currently receiving.”
Additional survey findings included:
- 89% of primary care physicians reported reminding patients about preventive screenings, while just 14% of patients reported getting such reminders, and only 5% reported being recommended a weight loss program.
- Patients who have multiple chronic illnesses and the most need for coordinated care reported just slightly more care management compared to others.
- Patient/physician electronic engagement is rising but still low, with 20 to 30% of patients reporting digital access for things like medical questions or electronic reminders.