Patient access to an electronic health record with secure messaging: impact on primary care utilization.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether patient access to secure patient-physician messaging affects annual adult primary care office visit and documented telephone contact rates.


METHODS
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 HealthConnect Online users longer than 13 months and had used at least 1 feature. The matched-control study sample included 3201 randomly selected controls matched by age/sex, selected chronic conditions, and primary care physician to 3201 registered users. We calculated the difference in primary care office visit and documented telephone contact rates in the pre- and post-periods (defined, respectively, as 3-14 months before and 2-13 months after registration for KP HealthConnect Online). Paired t tests were used to assess significance.


RESULTS
Annual office visit rates decreased by 0.23 (-9.7%) visits per member in the cohort study. Annual office visit rates for users in the matched-control study decreased by 0.25 (-10.3%); the corresponding decrease for the controls was 0.08 (-3.7%). This 0.17 (-6.7%) reduction was significant (P < .003). Annual documented telephone contact rates for users in the matched-control design increased by 0.32 (16.2%) contacts per member; the corresponding rate for the control group was 0.52 (29.9%). This 0.20 (13.7%) difference was significant (P < .01).


CONCLUSIONS
Patient access to the secure messaging feature of KP HealthConnect Online was associated with decreased rates of primary care office visits and telephone contacts.
Zhou
Yi Y
YY
Kaiser Permanente, Portland, OR 97210, USA. yvonne.y.zhou@kp.org
Garrido
Terhilda
T
Chin
Homer L
HL
Wiesenthal
Andrew M
AM
Liang
Louise L
LL
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016494:Computer Security; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D034742:Electronic Mail / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008329:Managed Care Programs / Q000458:organization & administration; D016555:Matched-Pair Analysis; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D008875:Middle Aged; D009819:Office Visits / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D033283:Patient Access to Records; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013689:Telephone / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States